Dan Prozinski loved living with his family above his office in an old brick building at Seven Corners in Minneapolis until the bar next door introduced loud music. The bass notes boomed through two brick walls.
Now a revision of the city's noise ordinance is giving people like Prozinski some added protection against unwanted noise.
The revamped ordinance adopted last month by the City Council gives greater weight to lower sound frequencies -- those that pass more easily through buildings -- in measuring for noise violations.
It's believed to be the first noise ordinance in Minnesota that gives such added protection against bass notes. In fact, a state noise specialist said she's not aware of other Minnesota cities that regulate indoor noise.
Minneapolis previously limited the amount of unwanted noise that can intrude into a residence or office from elsewhere in the building. The revamped law now also covers noise originating outside the building. Noise from either inside or outside violates the law if it reaches 10 decibels higher than the unit's background noise during the day, or 5 decibels at night.
Outside Minneapolis, noise is generally regulated only under a state law that sets decibel limits on outdoor noise.
The revamping of the indoor noise ordinance is part of a package of noise enforcement changes sponsored by Council Member Cam Gordon, a onetime bassist who can remember his band being told to turn down the volume occasionally.
"I'm not sure everything is going to be resolved by this," said Gordon, who heard concerns about unwanted noise from the Cedar-Riverside area where bars and housing mix. Indeed, a video demonstrating the noise impacts of one Seven Corners bar on an upstairs apartment was screened for a council committee.