#Breckenridge
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| Summit Daily |
The Historic Brown and Fox’s Den, a hotel and music venue located just off of Main Street Breckenridge, may be rezoned. The building itself is a historic building from 1895 that the owner, Michael Cavanaugh, bought in 1985. The hotel hosts music events periodically in the basement-level Fox’s Den. Last July, there was some confusion about the noise restrictions on the venue, but Cavanaugh walked away believing he was zoned for commercial noise levels.
Breckenridge town code requires that noise levels for commercially zoned areas do not exceed 70 decibels, while the maximum noise level for residentially zoned areas is 55 decibels. A decibel level comparison chart by Yale University’s department of environmental health and safety compares 55 decibels to the hum of a household refrigerator, while 70 decibels is somewhere between normal conversation and the sound of a vacuum cleaner.
It turns out that three sides of The Historic Brown are zoned commercially, but the fourth side, which is on North French Street, is zoned for residential noise levels. This zoning begins at the edge of the road closest to the hotel. Cavanaugh is petitioning the town to get the North French Street side of the building zoned for commercial noise levels.
Cavanaugh is collecting signatures from Breckenridge residents on an affidavit that requests a change in zoning that would allow The Historic Brown to be zoned for commercial noise levels on all sides. He said he plans to submit the affidavit and petition within the next week and expects the issue to be brought up in council in the Oct. 22 Breckenridge Town Council meeting or the Nov. 12 meeting.
Pending what happens at Town Council, Cavanaugh plans to have a trial by jury to fight the noise ordinance violations he has been cited with. Cavanaugh said that if it happens, the trial is to be set in November.
Courtesy Summit Daily
