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Council approves Mason’s Cove conditional use permit with fence, landscaping and sound-barrier conditions
Summary
New Franklin City Council approved the Planning and Zoning Commission’s unanimous recommendation to grant a conditional use permit for Mason’s Cove, adding a revised condition requiring a fence, aesthetically pleasing landscaping and a sound barrier to protect adjoining residences.
New Franklin City Council on Jan. 2 unanimously approved a conditional use permit for the Mason’s Cove event venue, adopting Planning and Zoning’s recommendation and amending a condition to require a fence, aesthetically pleasing landscaping and a sound barrier to ensure security and privacy for adjacent residential properties.
The permit covers the venue’s indoor and outdoor commercial recreational uses. Council members heard more than an hour of technical discussion and neighborhood complaints about sound, fence siting and landscaping before voting to accept the recommendation from Planning and Zoning with the amended Condition 2.
Why it matters: Neighbors and the city have been negotiating the placement and appearance of a barrier that council and the applicant say is intended to reduce sound impacts while preserving aesthetics. Council members emphasized that the venue’s construction cannot proceed to final site work until necessary zoning approvals and any required variances are resolved.
Council and staff discussed sound measurements introduced by residents and the applicant. A resident flagged a reported 106-decibel reading for Aug. 17 that did not match the continuous graph; the applicant and staff said the spike could have been caused by weather or a short-term event and that longer-form monitoring showed most readings at or below the mid-60-decibel range on the day of a May test. City staff and the applicant agreed that technical details of a sound-limiting system would be handled through the venue’s required site-plan review and equipment testing.
Neighbors pressed for the fence to be placed so the existing row of arborvitae continues to provide a visual buffer rather than forcing residents to look at a barrier. The applicant and the city said they had discussed multiple fence placements and landscaping options, and both sides committed to continued discussions and to using a city-designated representative to help mediate and expedite an agreement. City staff said buried utilities and existing easements constrain some fence locations and that a taller fence would require a variance before the Board of Zoning Appeals.
Council members and the applicant also discussed the city’s prior legislative exemption of entertainment venues from the local noise ordinance (legislation introduced previously by Mayor Boles), and the applicant noted the venue’s voluntary, more restrictive hours in practice. The council emphasized that any required variance or final fence plans would be subject to further review and that residents could seek enforcement if post-construction conditions did not match the permit’s requirements.
The council vote was recorded as unanimous. The conditional use permit will move forward with the amended language requiring a fence, aesthetically pleasing landscaping and a sound barrier; final design, exact placement and any variance requests will be decided during subsequent site-plan and zoning reviews.
Ending: City staff said they will provide a city-appointed facilitator to help the parties finalize fence placement and landscaping quickly so construction of the event center can proceed once the remaining approvals are obtained.
