Downtown Austin Westin sues 6th St. bar for being too loud

Sounds like the Westin messed up

http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/n...ustin-hotel-sues-sixth-street-venue-over.html

A hotel that opened a little more than a year ago in downtown Austin has sued a neighboring Sixth Street music venue, alleging its live music shows are too loud and bothering guests.

The Westin Austin Downtown, which opened in July 2015, is located at 310 E. Fifth St., behind The Nook Amphitheater open-air music venue on Sixth Street, which opened in 2011. In a lawsuit filed Dec. 22 in Travis County District Court, hotel operators Wesaus LLC sued Nook LLC for damages in excess of $1 million and is asking the court for an injunction to prevent the venue from further disturbing its guests late at night.

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Sixth Street music venue Nook Amphitheater has been sued by representatives of the Westin… more

MICHAEL THEIS/ABJ

The Nook is located in the heart of the Sixth Street Entertainment District, one of two areas — the other being the Warehouse District — where outdoor music venues are allowed by city law to play amplified music until 2 a.m.

The Westin said it has spent more than $1 million trying to mitigate the noise level inside the hotel, including by retrofitting rooms facing Sixth Street to dampen the sound. Hotel executives said they have also reached out to "neighboring businesses to ask for their assistance in maintaining the legal noise level, but unfortunately haven’t been able to obtain cooperation from one of our neighbors."

The Westin expects to host more than 110,000 people in 2017.

"The music scene in Austin is one of the biggest draws to the city, and The Westin Austin Downtown’s proximity to Sixth Street is a big part of the appeal for our hotel guests," executives said in a statement. "We support the city’s title as the 'Live Music Capital of the World' while ensuring those that visit can also enjoy their stay with manageable noise levels."

But Nook owner JD Dunn, on the other hand, told CBS Austin that he believes he is doing nothing wrong.

“We’re under the city ordinance of our sound permit,” Dunn said.

In its lawsuit, representatives for the hotel — whose website invites visitors to “explore the Live Music Capital of the World” — allege that they “took all reasonable measures to seamlessly integrate” the hotel “into one of the most vibrant corridors of art, music and culture in the United States.”

“Specifically, and with a studied awareness of the noise and rhythm emanating from the people and dozens of live music venues that mark a typical Austin weekend on Sixth Street, the Westin Austin Downtown was constructed in a way to allow guests peace and privacy adjacent to the busy entertainment district,” reads the lawsuit. “Plaintiff understood the need to balance the comfort and needs of the thousands of guests it would entertain each year with the rights of its neighbors to use their properties in the conduct of their business.”

According to the Austin Chronicle, staff in the city’s code enforcement and music and entertainment office disagree that the hotel did everything necessary to prevent loud “chest thumping bass,” as described in the suit, from seeping into guest rooms from the neighboring music venues. Last year, the Chronicle uncovered a September 2015 city study of the sound problems at the Westin. In that study, city officials wrote that “there is nearly no low-frequency sound mitigating materials built into the building.”

The city’s report also said that The Nook was not violating the city’s noise ordinance, which limits outdoor amplified noise to a certain limit.