Staff and supporters of the Bill Monroe Memorial Music Park want more flexibility in their zoning rules so that the landmark business can continue operating.
Some neighbors want more restrictions, not fewer, so that they can enjoy their land in the manner that they intended.
The Brown County Board of Zoning Appeals hasn’t made a decision yet. After taking comments from both sides at a hearing last week, members voted unanimously to seek more details from the petitioners and come back to it at their next meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 26.
The 55-acre Bill Monroe park — which sits along a highway named for the “Father of Bluegrass” — contains not only outdoor performance stages, but also more than 200 campsites for tents or RVs.
The park came into being before local zoning laws were created. But in 1992, the zoning board granted a special exception when the Monroes asked for expanded camping and activities, and some limits were on the park’s operation.
That special exception allowed the Bill Monroe grounds to host 12 music events or concerts annually. An “event” was one festival which could last multiple days, according to a 1992 newspaper story about the decision.
At last week’s hearing, attorney James T. Roberts asked the board to expand that use to 24 events, musical or otherwise, and no more than 52 shows or concerts.
“Events” were defined in the current petition as “festivals and other gatherings involving multiple performers or other participants and spectators who will remain on the premises for more than 24 hours.”
“Shows or concerts” were defined as “live or recorded audio or video performances that would not exceed six hours in length.”
For instance, during a weekend, the operators might have multiple live music shows, or they could project a video for campers to watch, which would use up several of those 52 “shows or concerts,” Roberts explained.
The petitioners also asked the board to remove operating hours restrictions, which varied based on the day of the week and season. Instead, they asked that the board allow them to have no amplified music or announcements before 9 a.m. or after midnight.
The original petition to the board, written by General Manager Lisa Kelp on July 18, asked that all restrictions in the 1992 special exception be dropped to allow “unrestricted ability in the management of the park.” However, by the time of the hearing last week, Roberts had revised that to ask for the 24 events and 52 shows or concerts — and that request, too, was flexible, he said.
Flexibility is needed because the music business has changed drastically, Roberts said. It isn’t like when Bill Monroe played, unplugged with his buddies. “The music business is very competitive, and it’s a lot more expensive than it used to be. It costs more money to put on a good show,” Roberts said.
“Also, there wasn’t any amplification back when I was listening to Bill Monroe. Many artists now can’t perform without their electric instruments and amplification, so to exclude amplified music is to exclude maybe 75 to 80 percent of the performers who are available now,” he said.
Rex and Ben Voils, who are buying the park from Dwight Dillman, also are planning to put in more campsites for RVs and tents, going from 220 to 300. Those, with the existing camping cabins, are additional revenue sources, Roberts said.
The owners don’t know exactly what’s going to work to make it profitable; it’s going to require some trial and error, Roberts said — and maybe some collaboration.
“If Brown County is to become a music destination as well as a visual art destination, I think all of the facilities are going to have to have some flexibility to be able to coordinate and put on maybe a series of concerts,” he said, mentioning other venues such as the under-construction, indoor Maple Leaf Performing Arts Center in Nashville.
Against
Eight neighbors or their representatives spoke against the petition. One other sent a letter to the BZA in advance. One speaker, attorney Mike Carmin, said he was representing a group of residents but did not identify them.
Nearly all of the speakers said they don’t want to see Bill Monroe go under; several of them had attended shows there, and they support the economic impact the business has on Brown County. The concerns they pointed out were about the “vagueness” of the petition and the impact that more shows, events or concerts could have on their personal comfort and property values.
Eugene Spiegel, who lives about a mile away, said that even when he closes his house he can still hear the bass.
He also wanted the board and petitioners to talk in terms of operational days, not the number of events or festivals, because one event could last multiple days.
“If I didn’t hear it, I wouldn’t complain,” he said. “I think it’s a great thing; I like the economics of it; I just don’t want it to go beyond the borders of the camp.”
Nina Leggett said she can’t walk her dog on her own property because of the way the dog reacts to the noise. She also attributed the death of her horse to the “shrieking and mechanical noises” coming from the haunted park which the Voils family offered at Bill Monroe a few years ago.
Mary Jo Spiegel said that if anything, the park’s operation should be restricted more. She said that the terms of the 1992 special exception, which she called a “contract with the community,” hadn’t been upheld, such as the 50-foot buffer of vegetation around the entire property. She submitted an 11-page document to the board in advance with pictures showing tents and RVs visible from State Road 135 North and from Spearsville Road.
Her letter also contained excerpts from the Brown County sheriff’s log in 2013 and 2014 in which noise, alcohol-related incidents, accidents and illegal camping were reported. It also included news from June 2014, when a man attending a festival was hit and killed while walking on the highway; and from June 2017, when a man who’d been at the park was picked up for driving a golf cart along the highway and multiple kinds of drugs were found in his bag.
“Community standards should not be lowered for an individual’s profit,” Mary Jo Spiegel said.
The Rev. James Brown lamented what he perceived to be the loss of quiet “country people” in this equation, like the ones who used to play at the Monroe park when he moved here nearly 50 years ago. “Most of the time when Bill Monroe was around, you didn’t even know what was going on,” he said.
“If you change the culture of Brown County, people are not going to come here; they’ll go somewhere else,” he added. “… When we change the culture and it’s like Indianapolis, why not just stay in Indianapolis?”
Bandy Russell and other neighbors wanted more details about the type of gatherings that might be added. Scout camp-outs are much different than biker parties, she said. She also wanted noise coming from the park to be measured and a stiff fine levied in case of violations.
It’s true that she and her neighbors knew about the Bill Monroe park when they moved in, she said. But they also knew about the restrictions that had been placed on it.
“Yes, there are things I can do to my house to reduce noise, but should l have to? I should not have to change my life so that they’re profitable,” Russell said.
BZA member Deborah Bartes pointed out that there is no ordinance regulating noise in the county, only within Nashville.
Planning Director Chris Ritzmann clarified after the meeting that the current fine for violating the zoning ordinance is no longer up to $500, but rather up to $10,000 per incident, per day.
In favor
Eleven people besides Roberts spoke in favor of granting the park expanded uses. Two more sent in letters of support.
Robyn Rosenberg said she’s lived within six miles of the park for 30 years and she enjoys sitting on her deck and listening on clear nights.
Lizzy Means grew up in the Bean Blossom area and said her parents never had problems getting her to bed because of park noise when she was a kid. Now, she works full-time there, and she’s grateful for that.
“It’s hard to find full-time work in Brown County, and if it wasn’t for Bill Monroe’s I’d be stuck doing the waitress thing, seasonal. I hope they expand, hire more people, so we can get jobs for more of our young people to hang around and raise their own families here,” she said.
Marisa Payton said the park is essential to the business she manages, Moondance Vacation Rentals. Multi-day festivals help book tourist cabins, including on weekdays which are traditionally tougher to fill than weekends. The few stores left in Bean Blossom and Helmsburg also depend on the income from park guests, said resident and business owner Cindy Steele.
Without Bill Monroe, Bean Blossom is just a spot on the map, said Brown County Redevelopment Commission President Jim Kemp. If the BZA denies the request, it’ll be less than that, just another place that once was, he said.
BZA member John Dillberger said the board doesn’t want to “micromanage” a business’ affairs; however, the purpose of special exceptions is to weigh the effect of the business on adjoining landowners.
With the board’s support, he asked the petitioners for other data: A list of all events, musical or otherwise, that have taken place on the property in the past three years, and the dates, hours and approximate attendance; events that were not able to be scheduled because of the current restrictions; a description of the park’s buffer to other properties and how they plan to remedy it where it does not exist; and a wish list of what the schedule would look like if they were able to have whatever they wanted.
“I’m very sympathetic,” Dillberger said. “You’ve made your case, that the business model that has been viable for a few decades is no longer viable, and either you need to change the business model or the business folds.
“… Our decision has to be, do we want to allow them to change their business model, which has a very different impact on adjoining properties, or do we not?”
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The Brown County Board of Zoning Appeals has asked for more information from the petitioners before making a decision on whether or not to allow expanded use of the Bill Monroe Memorial Music Park in Bean Blossom.
NEXT MEETING: 6 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 26, County Office Building
READ PLANS AND DOCUMENTS:
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