Events Calendar
In This Section
Most Read Stories
Blogs:
Pets:
Sunburn in canines and felines
The Heldenfiles:
Monday Notebook, New "90210" on DVD
Patrick McManamon:
Eric Wedge will stay the season
Akron Zips:
Opponent outlook: Northern Illinois
Browns Bulletin:
Single-game ticket sales begin July 11
Tribe Matters:
Wedge assured of job through season
Cleveland Browns:
Stallworth test showed marijuana
Kent State Sports:
Men's Basketball Scheduling update
Cleveland Cavaliers:
Free agency: Another One Bites the Dust
All Da King's Men:
The Obligatory Palin Post
Blog of Mass Destruction:
The "Limbaugh Babies"
Akron Law Café:
The Veil and the Burqa – Constitutional to Ban or Restrict?
Varsity Letters:
Highland senior receives honor
See Jane Style:
Picnic Wear
Car Chase:
Where do We Go from Here?
Let's Talk Real Estate:
ID My Bug
Ohio Travels with Betty:
Jennifer inquires about a bus tour to Atlantic City
Sound Check:
Rundgren fans rejoice!: Second night of AWATS at The Civic added
HRLite House:
Morscruethal Behaviors or Just Lip Service?
Akron Gamer:
Hot link: Best of Nintendo at E3
Eatery in flap on noise and dancing closes
By Paula Schleis
Beacon Journal business writer
Published on Tuesday, Feb 12, 2008
The Tallmadge restaurant at the center of a noise and dance controversy has closed.
Pasta Villa Ristorante owner John Imburgia said that after a Planning and Zoning Commission hearing Thursday, he decided that stipulations in his unique conditional zoning permit would always keep him from playing music and competing with other Tallmadge restaurants that do.
Imburgia, who said he spent $250,000 converting the building at 498 South Ave. into a restaurant, said the experience has bankrupted him. But he said he was particularly heartbroken for 16 employees who lost their jobs.
''Those people loved working for me and loved working at the restaurant. It's a sad day,'' Imburgia said.
Since opening last May, Pasta Villa had been the target of nearly 30 police calls from nearby Nutwood Drive, a cul-de-sac of older residents who said they could hear music coming from the restaurant.
Imburgia's conditional zoning permit said amplified sound may not be audible past his property.
That's a stricter test than
the city's general noise ordinance, which allows amplified sound to carry 80 feet from its source. City officials said other restaurants are held to the looser standard because they are not as close to a residential area as Pasta Villa was.
Police who responded to the neighbors' calls repeatedly refused to cite Imburgia, saying they heard nothing, or a sound so faint as to not be an annoyance.
But Tallmadge Mayor Christopher Grimm and Law Director Penny Taylor said they could hear a vibrating bass sound in the home of the Nutwood Drive resident who lives closest to the restaurant.
They asked the Planning and Zoning Commission on Thursday to recommend to City Council that Imburgia's conditional zoning permit be rescinded. But a four-hour hearing ended when the city agreed to drop the action and Imburgia promised there would be no amplified noise beyond his property.
Imburgia said that the next day, he realized ''the restrictions on me eliminated the 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. market segment.''
''My competition in Tallmadge doesn't have that restriction. I tried to come up with a solution, but I couldn't,'' Imburgia said.
Saturday morning, he told his employees he'd decided to close.
''It was a sad day, but they did a great job all day, even knowing we would close at the end of the night,'' Imburgia said.
Grimm said Pasta Villa was playing the wrong kind of music.
Other restaurants in Tallmadge that play live music or have jukeboxes stick with 1950s and '60s music or country and cater to an ''older crowd,'' Grimm said.
''The audience he was trying to attract was a younger group and they play louder music'' with a thumping bass that isn't found in other kinds of music, Grimm said.
The city also objected to customers dancing in the bar area of the restaurant, saying that atmosphere made the restaurant a night club. Night clubs that serve alcohol are prohibited in the city.
Grimm said Imburgia was ''a great guy with a good business'' and he wished him well.
Asked whether he was surprised that Pasta Villa closed, Grimm said: ''No, not really. It's a very tough business. There's a 92 percent failure rate at restaurants.''
Paula Schleis can be reached at 330-996-3741 or pschleis@thebeaconjournal.com.
The Tallmadge restaurant at the center of a noise and dance controversy has closed.
Get the full article here.
Most Commented Stories
- 25
- 25
- 19
- 16
- 13
- 13
Barbecue restaurant owner appeals mannequin's cover-up order
13
- 12
- 10
- 9
