SAFETY HARBOR, Fla. — An online petition is circulating around Safety Harbor where local businesses are looking to address ongoing noise ordinance issues in the city.

What You Need To Know

  • A business owner in Safety Harbor has started an online petition after receiving a citation for allegedly violating the city's noise ordinance

  • They, and other businesses in town, are asking people to attend Monday's City Commission meeting to voice their concerns over the future of live music in their downtown area

  • The noise ordinance prohibits "loud and raucous noise" and outdoor music between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m.

The business owners say law enforcement is being called during the middle of the day and during prime operating hours over complaints that live music is being too loud.

Music, according to James Michael, owner of Screaming Jalapeno in Safety Harbor, is intertwined with the city.

“Music brings you brings memories back,” Michael said. “You know, it takes you to places where you can say, 'I remember driving down that road when I heard this song.'”

The Screaming Jalapeno is a Tex-Mex restaurant on Main Street in Safety Harbor.

Michael grew up in this town and said he has loved to see it evolved over the years.

“When I grew up living here, this was kind of the wrong side of the railroad tracks,” he said. “And now that's all completely changed, and Safety Harbor is now one of the best places to live in Tampa Bay.”

Recently, however, he said something has come up that has led to him and some of the other businesses in town to raise their collective voice.

According to Michael, this past weekend, while the restaurant next door, Bar Fly, was having an outdoor live music show, before 10 p.m., the restaurant got a citation in connection with the city’s noise ordinance.

The city’s ordinance says downtown businesses can’t have "loud and raucous noise" and that live music can’t happen between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m.

Michael said complaints are coming in for noise in the middle of the afternoon.

“There are certain groups of people in town who have started making complaints at 3:30 (p.m.) on a weekend and calling our local deputies out,” he said. “There's a disconnect. And we just kind of want to get on the same page.”

The owner of Bar Fly, who wasn’t available to speak with Bay News 9 on Monday afternoon, made an online petition and he, along with Michael and other businesses in Safety Harbor, asked people to go to Monday's City Commission meeting to voice their concerns on what complaints might do to future live music events in town.

“We can't let a few dozen, and literally that's what it is, impact the thousands of people that come out every Third Friday to enjoy live music,” Michael said.

During Monday’s city commission meeting, according to its agenda, the commission plans to discuss goals for 2025 and 2026 while looking back at last year’s goals, which included reviewing the noise ordinance in 2023.

Owners, like Michael, hope the people speaking up at the commission can come to a mutual understanding so everyone is on the same page and so the music can hopefully play on.