Flagler Beach commission approves outdoor-entertainment permit for Cajun Beach with noise and equipment conditions

The Flagler Beach City Commission on Thursday approved an outdoor-entertainment permit for Cajun Beach, a restaurant on South Central Avenue, subject to conditions intended to limit sound impacts on nearby hotels and residences.

Supporters and neighborhood residents spent more than two hours at the meeting offering technical testimony and personal accounts of the venue’s prior noise history. After hearing from a pair of sound consultants and dozens of public commenters, the commission voted 3-1 to grant the permit with conditions including: outdoor music ending at 9:30 p.m.; no drums; no karaoke; limiting the permanent stage speakers to be no further forward than the stage’s front wall line; and no additional speakers beyond those described in the application.

The permit drew heavily contested testimony. Hunter Bedard, speaking for applicant Patrick McKinney, said the applicant had redesigned the stage and agreed to “music stopping at 09:30PM,” to prohibit drums and to bar karaoke, and offered to adopt speaker-placement requirements discussed in the hearing. Greg Valentini, a sound technician who reviewed the rebuilt stage, told commissioners “most of that sound energy goes out to the ocean,” and said the new double-wall stage construction would reduce sideways sound energy toward neighboring properties.

Neighborhood residents offered opposing accounts. Brenda Wotherspoon, who lives near the venue, said responding officers had performed decibel readings “one time” and that the peak reading had reached “95 decibels,” which she said exceeded the city limit. Other neighbors said prior owners repeatedly ignored warnings and that the location is inherently unsuitable for regular outdoor music because a stage sits close to hotel suites and residences.

Commission discussion focused on whether the revised stage design and the proposed operational limits met the city’s noise-control expectations. Commissioners asked for the applicant to show where all speakers would be sited; the applicant agreed to list all permanent speakers in the application and to require the stage speakers to be recessed or flush with the front lip of the stage.

When the commission took its roll-call vote, the permit passed 3-1. Commissioners John Cunningham, Ed Bellheimer and Commissioner Cooley voted yes; Chair James Patrick Sherman voted no. Commissioner Spradley recused himself earlier in the proceeding and did not vote on the permit. Penny (city clerk) announced the motion carried 3–1. The record also notes the city’s enforcement process: repeated code citations can trigger a special-magistrate enforcement hearing and potential permit revocation under the city’s code enforcement procedures.

The approved conditions mirror the compromises presented during the meeting: the applicant gets an opportunity to operate outdoor music under the new stage configuration, but the commission carved out explicit operational limits and documentation requirements to give neighbors a pathway for enforcement should problems continue.

The commission’s approval included an instruction that staff incorporate the volunteered conditions into the permit and that any future additional speakers beyond those recorded in the permit would require prior commission or staff approval.