DELAND, Fla. – Over a dozen families who live near DeLand are suing a bar over noise they say is going on too late. The bar, DeLand City Limits Taproom, sits right near the DeLand and Deleon Springs border off Highway 17.
The lawsuit claims these noise issues, with music blasting from the bar, have been going on for years and asks for an injunction, compensation and attorney fees.
The residents created a group called “Neighbors Against Pollution.”
“Our windows will shake from the music. You’ll feel vibrations throughout the house from music,” said resident Elanit Rich.
Rich is one of the people whose home sits a little under 800 feet from the taproom.
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“On Friday nights and Saturday nights, Friday night is our Sabbath, we’re Jewish, and for some reason on those nights, that’s when the music is loudest,” she said.
The Volusia Sheriff’s Office told News 6 it has received over a hundred calls for noise complaints about the taproom from these residents since 2022.
Body camera video from deputies showed they have shown up, and records show they have filed four violations.
Sheriff Mike Chitwood told News 6 affidavits have to be filled out by residents for official violations to be filed, though, and many residents have not wanted to take that step.
“We can only do so much. What people don’t understand is if you call and tell us ‘the music’s too loud, come and lower it,’ we can walk in there and say we’re getting calls lower it. But there’s no complaint, and we tell people you have to fill out an affidavit that this is causing you harm or causing you grief, you’ll fill out the affidavit and we’ll turn it into code enforcement,” he said.
The taproom’s owner, Peter Ferrentino, said he wants the issue resolved.
“I offered this, prior to this meeting, to have them come out, one representative with their attorney, walk the property, we set the levels to the speakers that can be lived with, and we move forward from there and if this is the issue, this is the answer,” he said.
Ferrentino told News 6 he hopes they can find a solution outside of the courtroom.
“We have to be able to live together. This is a business, and they are a religion and that’s fine. We can both coexist. Two different worlds and lifestyles but at the end of the day if the level is agreed upon, I think the answer is done,” he said.
A temporary injunction in the residents’ lawsuit was just denied by a local judge. The lawsuit is slated to go to trial in January.
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