The City of Montreal says it’s acting quickly to protect music venues after a Quebec Court of Appeal decision earlier this week forced the temporary closure of historic concert venue La Tulipe over noise complaints.
“The judgment surprised us all, and we have to act immediately because all music venues are threatened,” Plateau-Mont-Royal borough mayor and head of the city’s executive committee Luc Rabouin said at a news conference Wednesday.
Rabouin said the borough council would hold an extraordinary meeting Thursday to modify the specific noise regulation the appeal court cited in its decision.
“We will exclude concert venues, bars, restaurants and cultural centres from the application of Section 9, which says no audible noise can be heard from a neighbour,” Rabouin said.
The new rules may not be enough to nullify the Court of Appeal’s decision and save La Tulipe, which cancelled all its upcoming events after the ruling.
Claude Larivée, the president and co-founder of Tribu, the company that owns La Tulipe, told CBC Wednesday the rule change was a step in the right direction, but he said he’s far from reassured.
“The court of appeal decision is a nightmare for us,” Larivée said.
“The judgment forbids us from having amplified sound in a designated heritage space which can only be used a performance hall,” he said.
“We are owners of walls whose sole purpose is concerts and we can’t have concerts.”
Music venues to be exempt from strictest noise rule
The rule change will only apply in the Plateau-Mont-Royal borough — which is home to many music venues — but Rabouin said he expected other boroughs to adopt similar measures soon.
“Everyone is worried, and that’s why we’re immediately changing our regulations, because the impact is enormous,” Rabouin said.
The Court of Appeal decision focused on Section 9 of the borough’s noise regulations, which prohibits any noise from sound equipment, such as loudspeakers, from reaching neighbouring properties, regardless of intensity.
Rabouin said Section 9 was never intended to apply to music venues.
“It aims to regulate neighbourhood disturbances. There’s someone at home, his neighbour plays his music too loud, he calls the police, they come and tell the neighbours to turn down the volume,” Rabouin said.
He said for concert venues a different rule applies — Section 8 — which allows for a maximum noise threshold and permits venues to add soundproofing to bring noise below that level.
A lower court decision in the La Tulipe case said that Section 8 should apply, but the appeal court ruled Section 9 was more appropriate.
Rabouin said exempting music venues from Section 9 should prevent any other venues from having to shut down.
Days after a Quebec Court of Appeal decision forced the temporary closure of historic concert venue La Tulipe over a neighbour’s noise complaints, the borough says it’s altering the bylaw the decision was centred on.
The city also announced Wednesday it was expanding a program that offers financial support for venues who install soundproofing. Currently support is only offered to venues with a capacity of 400 people or less.
Ericka Alneus, the city’s executive committee member responsible for culture, said starting in October that program will be expanded to include larger venues as well.
Alneus said the city is continuing to work on a nightlife policy that should clarify rules and make it easier for music venues to operate.
“We understand the insecurity artists and the cultural community are experiencing, but we will do everything possible to keep the jewel that is Montreal as a cultural metropolis,” Alneus said.
Borough mistake at the root of dispute
The situation with La Tulipe is particular.
The venue operated without incident for more than 15 years, but in 2016 a real estate investor, Pierre-Yves Beaudoin, purchased the neighbouring building and created 16 condo units.
Beaudoin also lives in the building and has since filed about 20 noise complaints.
The borough admits Beaudoin’s building never should have been zoned for residential use, but that a permit was issued after a borough employee made an error.
The borough contends that since the permit was issued in error it shouldn’t apply, and it’s in an ongoing legal battle with Beaudoin to have the residential use permit revoked.
“The borough employee made a mistake, we admitted it. He shouldn’t have issued the permit. It’s a real shame because the consequences are major,” Rabouin said Wednesday.
Larivée, who controls the company that owns La Tulipe, said until the city can concretely tell him he can continue to operate, he doesn’t know if the venue can survive.
For now, Rabouin doesn’t have a clear answer.
“It’s difficult for us to have a legal interpretation of the consequence of a modification of our bylaw,” he said.
“I can’t tell you if it will have an automatic impact, but we are all going to mobilize to try to see what we can put in place to save La Tulipe,” Rabouin said.
Civil lawyer Rémi Bourget told Radio-Canada Wednesday he didn’t think the rule changes by the borough would have any effect on the court decision against LaTulipe.
“The way the conclusions are worded, I believe the judgment would stand,” Bourget said.
“The regulatory amendment will have the effect of preventing such a case from recurring in the future, but I don’t believe that it can have a retroactive effect in the La Tulipe situation,” he said.
La Tulipe’s owners haven’t yet said if they intend to appeal the Quebec Court of Appeal decision to the Supreme Court of Canada.
Quebec’s Superior Court had already ordered Montreal’s La Tulipe venue to improve its soundproofing. Now, the Court of Appeal is taking things a step further. People in the industry say the ruling will have a ripple effect.
