At their July 6 meeting, the City of Cornelia Commission unanimously voted to deny changes to their large gatherings ordinance and tabled changes to their noise ordinance after a public hearing.
The city asked for community input on changes to their large gatherings ordinance in a June newsletter, referring to some large residential gatherings as an issue that “plagues” their community.
Several members of the community voiced their opinions in opposition to changes to the ordinance, noting the racial implications of changing the ordinance, government control of residential property, and their views of what it means to live in a community.
Cornelia resident Phillip Ballard shared his thoughts on the ordinance, expressing that he believed the current ordinance already held appropriate restrictions on residential noise and parking, they just needed to be enforced.
In small rural communities, nobody likes to talk about race. – Audrey Davenport
“If you want to toughen up [the restrictions] that’s one thing, but from what I’m understanding here, you’re taking a step toward telling the general public how many people they can have in their homes,” Ballard said. “And you’re targeting a part of the community that I don’t think you ought to be targeting, mainly the Hispanic community, because that’s where a lot of the large gatherings are.”
Ballard wasn’t the only person who spoke up on how changes to the ordinance seemed like they may target Cornelia’s Hispanic community. A citizen shared that in her experience, her family received noise complaints that felt targeted due to their ethnicity.
Cornelia citizen Audrey Davenport also expressed her concerns about the populations that make up the wards Cornelia City Manager Dee Anderson told Now Habersham that the gatherings are a reoccurring problem in. Anderson cited complaints in Wards 3 and 4, which Davenport says are neighborhoods with significant black and Hispanic concentrations.
“If you don’t think this about race you’ve got another thing coming,” Davenport told the commission. “You can be defensive from here until eternity, but it’s not going to negate the fact that it’s about race.”
What I see is not an ordinance problem, it’s a neighbor problem. – Troy Simmons
Davenport encouraged the commission to sit down with the public and have a more in-depth conversation about the ordinance, as well as take into account the diversity developing in the city. “In small rural communities, nobody likes to talk about race,” Davenport tells Now Habersham.
Other citizens expressed that noise, parking woes, and loud music are part of having neighbors. An individual brought up that the live music and events the city sponsors are a disturbance at her home, and during city events cars block the street of her residency. But she says that those things are part of living in a community.
“What I see is not an ordinance problem, it’s a neighbor problem,” said Cornelia citizen Troy Simmons. “We’re all in this together, so we have to come up with a solution, but you first have to look at your neighbor.”
For me to have to carry my gun, that’s unacceptable. – Brenda Edwards
Other residents came to speak in favor of changes to the ordinance, asking for more noise restrictions. The city’s current code of ordinances defines any noise above 60 decibels outside of the residential property line as a nuisance, which is about the noise level of a normal conversation.
“We need to do something about the decibel level,” said Cornelia property owner Donna Shirley, who says she’s had multiple problems with party noises keeping her up and police not having the jurisdiction to shut down a party due to decibel levels not being high enough. “If that’s truly the reason at 1:45 a.m. that they [the Cornelia Police] couldn’t stop that party, then we need to address that and get it fixed.”
Citizen Brenda Edwards shared a different outlook on the ordinance. While most individuals who spoke in favor of changing the large gatherings ordinance were concerned with noise, Edwards expressed that she felt the need to carry a gun due to parties in the area and people parking on her property. She also claims she has had two break-ins relating to the gatherings. “For me to have to carry my gun, that’s unacceptable,” Edwards told the commission.
Mayor John Borrow told the citizens that the goal of the ordinance changes they were considering was not to restrict residential gatherings and events but to keep the peace of Cornelia neighborhoods and limit disturbances.
Commissioners Tony Cook, Janice Griggs, and Don Bagwell felt they could not make a decision on the noise ordinance at the meeting.
“I love seeing this community involvement, hearing this real-world input from people,” Bagwell said. “I think this is democracy at work, and it’s been an exciting time for me to see this. We’ve needed this input, this is why we’re here, to facilitate and ascertain the will of the people and come up with a solution. I do think we need a little bit of time to digest what we’ve heard and make sure that we don’t do this thing wrong– that we don’t allow government overreach to make life more difficult for people here.”
The commission plans to revisit the noise ordinance at their August 3 meeting. You can watch the full meeting on their Facebook page.
