Photo by Thomas Webster | CC Flickr
The Vieux Carre Commission recently denied an application submitted by Cafe Lafitte in Exile last year to install a roof over its gallery on the corner over Bourbon and Dumaine streets.
During a hearing held on Sept. 21, the VCC unanimously denied the application to install a roof nearly 10 feet above the bar’s wrap-around gallery located at 901 Bourbon Street, which opponents said would have diminished quality of life, including increased sound levels and pedestrian traffic.
Consultant Collaboration in Science and Technology Inc. said in an assessment report that the roof addition would result in an increase of eight decibels, or a 75% increase in sound levels.
“In addition, there may be significant increases in music projected to the deck and beyond if the deck is treated as a regular part of the bar,” according to the report, which said the roof will result in “cocktail party effect.” “This may include the low-frequency bass sounds that are especially annoying in the community.”
The VCC Architectural Committee conceptually approved the application in December 2021. A staff report said the application was deferred by the VCC later that month to allow the bar to find other options that could mitigate the sound.
The staff report noted that the building itself has a green historical rating, which has has local architectural or historical significance, although the rear one-story addition has a brown rating, or with “objectionable or of no architectural or historical importance.”
The gallery itself was added in the 1970s and also isn’t consider to have historic importance, the report said, adding that the entire building could be cons
Thomas G. Wood, listed as the owner/operator of Cafe Lafitte in Exile, said there is no one source of “intolerable or obnoxious” noise along Bourbon Street from Dumaine to Saint Philip streets and that he has never received a noise complaint in 50 years, according to an affidavit in support of the application.
Additionally, several neighbors wrote in support of the roof, including Darleen M. Jacobs of Home Finders International Inc., listed in an affidavit as the owner of more than a dozen buildings in the French Quarter.
Roland, Woolworth & Associates LLC, hired by Cafe Lafitte in Exile to evaluate sound levels, said CSTI’s report was “reasonable” in its calculations of increased levels but that the assumptions driving the increase are “speculative.”
The RWA report cited other contributing sources of sound, including from nearby businesses that attract crowds along Bourbon Street and brass bands that can be heard at least from one block away.
“The CSTI report does not reference the actual sound levels in the area or the actual (relative) sound levels created by the patrons, or the other sound sources in the immediate vicinity,” RWA’s report said. “This makes it hard to determine the impact of any sound level increase of the patrons, and whether this is significant at all.”
VCPORA called the application’s denial an “advocacy win,” referencing the French Quarter residents who showed up to the Sept. 21 meeting to oppose the application.
“No doubt a gallery roof would be good for business, but neighbors are concerned about setting a bad architectural precedent – there has historically been no gallery roof, and even the gallery appeared within the last 50 years,” VCPORA said. “Additionally, the increased crowds that the balcony cover will invite means even more sound emanating into the residential side streets.”
