The Reno City Council has been experiencing an increase in complaints connected to noise, particularly in the downtown area.
After a meeting, they continue to try to find new ways to keep both businesses and neighbors in the area happy.
Complaints are mostly about businesses with live entertainment in the downtown and midtown area, and focus on loud noise and intoxicated people.
Live entertainment can be anything from DJs, trivia, karaoke, or concerts, to a nightclub playing music.
Angela Fuss, Assistant Director of Development Services, said they are working to ensure businesses can still be successful without having neighbors unhappy.
"We're going to add some additional requirements so that residents have an extra layer of protection," she said. "So it's not a free-for-all. What we don't want is a bunch of buyers coming in with no rules and saying, 'Oh, I was, you know, grandfathered in under this temporary stay.' And then we have bad operators.”
Something that the city council recognizes is that Reno is a 24-hour city, and even though they want to keep Reno unique in that way, they don't want people to feel scared to move into the area.
They see that more protection could be possible through following up with police enforcement, business licenses, and code enforcement.
Fuss also said they want to make sure their regulations are obtainable for every business, "A nightclub is very different from, you know, somebody that has dinner and music with a guitar in the background, right? Two very different types of live entertainment. So again, we want to come up with some tools to give the city more enforcement for these different types of businesses, but also give the residents some assurance."
As of now, any establishments offering live entertainment need to go through the process of getting a conditional use permit, which has a fee of $5,000 and about a three-month waiting period.
Outdoor live entertainment is limited from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., with indoor entertainment being from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m., but requires doors and windows to be kept closed after 10 p.m.
As of now, nothing is changing, but a meeting is scheduled for April where city staff is expected to present suggestions for temporary new rules for businesses to try to address residents' concerns and possibly lower the fee for the conditional use permit or even eliminate it completely.
