Fruit Yard expansion is facing lower tolerance for loud music among Stanislaus County homeowners

The Great Recession put a freeze on many development projects, including the plan to turn The Fruit Yard, east of Modesto, into a destination for banquets and special events.

Now that the owners, Joe and Willie Traina, are working on the expansion at their 45-acre site, at Highway 132 and Geer Road, they have run into protests from neighbors who complain about loud music.

No one opposed the expansion when Stanislaus County supervisors approved the project in August 2008 on a seven-year development schedule, other than former board Chairman Tom Mayfield, who feared it would set a precedent for commercial projects in agricultural zones.

County leaders increasingly hear pleas from rural homeowners to enforce a noise ordinance and clamped restrictions on the Symbiosis festival held at Woodward Reservoir in September.

County planning commissioners, who approved a time extension for the Fruit Yard development last week, made it clear the project will need to comply with a section of the ordinance that regulates noise from commercial centers that’s bothersome to neighbors.

The Trainas have owned the property for more than 35 years, providing a gas station and restaurant for locals and people headed to Yosemite or reservoirs in the region. Featuring a park area with a pond, the center also has hosted an annual Back to Graffiti festival with live music, weddings, and social functions with Celtic music and bagpipes.

The proposed expansion includes a 9,000-square-foot banquet hall and amphitheater, a new convenience store, retail building, a 322-space boat and recreational vehicle storage area, a 66-space travel trailer park for short-term stays, a tractor sales yard and fruit-packing facility.

Thursday, the county Planning Commission voted 6-0 to give them more time to build the expansion but shortened a proposed 15-year extension to seven years. Commissioner Katherine Borges abstained from the vote.

During the hearing, Tom Douglas and three other homeowners said they are kept awake by The Fruit Yard’s bar music, and wondered what it would be like with the banquet hall and amphitheater. They are concerned the amphitheater will be used for more events with live music.

Douglas, an accountant who works in agriculture, said music at night will affect his sleep because he rises at 4 a.m. “We have a (noise) ordinance that no one is enforcing,” Douglas said. “We are building up a situation where it is us against them.”

Douglas owns a ranchette 1 1/2 miles east of The Fruit Yard, but others who spoke have homes within half a mile of the business. “I raised two infants through the noise,” said Michelle Bell, who told of filing loud music complaints with the Sheriff’s Department.

Angela Freitas, county director of planning and community development, said the owners’ request for a time extension was not an opportunity to make changes to the development plan. The commission cited the recession and work the owners have done at the site as justification for the extension.

Freitas said the amphitheater, tractor sales and fruit-packing facility have to return to the commission for permit review, so solutions to noise issues can be discussed at that time.

Engineer Dave Romano, representing the project, said the proponents are working with a consultant on a noise study and mitigations. In the past, people have used sound barriers, positioning of speakers and limits on decibel levels to meet standards in the county ordinance.

“We will abide by the county ordinance, and we always have,” Joe Traina said. “Hopefully, we will all come to some conditions that are agreeable to them and us. Some of the concern is that we will have a lot of late-night music, which is not the idea.”

Traina said they want to meet a need for more wedding venues in the county. The amphitheater, with grass and chair seating, is intended for comedy nights, plays and other events that could be held once a month during the summer, he said.

The county is revising the noise ordinance to clarify a certain standard that makes the rules hard to enforce. The Fruit Yard most likely falls under rules for commercial zones that require noise to stay within certain decibel levels from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., Deputy County Counsel Thomas Boze said. The allowable noise level drops significantly after 10 p.m.

The Planning Commission has recently leaned on the Larsa Banquet Hall, just east of Turlock, to create sound barriers and make other changes to deal with a noise nuisance for neighbors. Two commissioners said they would need to be consistent with The Fruit Yard if loud music is an issue.

Commissioner Marc Etchebarne told The Fruit Yard representatives that planners are not afraid to hold property owners to noise requirements. “If it comes across our desk, there is going to be scrutiny and that is to protect these citizens,” Etchebarne said.

Boze said he is not sure the county is getting more noise complaints, but “people are becoming better educated about (the regulations). We are starting to understand better how to deal with noise issues.”

In time, the county ordinance could be amended to address different types of sound, such as base-level thumping that seems to annoy residents even though the volume of music is not that intense, Boze said.

But the county also doesn’t want to be too restrictive with its noise regulations.

“People may forget they live in a community where they have neighbors and everything around them is creating noise,” Boze said. “People have an unreasonable expectation if they think they can live without that.”

This story was originally published December 8, 2015 at 4:14 PM with the headline "Fruit Yard expansion is facing lower tolerance for loud music among Stanislaus County homeowners."