ST. PETE BEACH, Fla. (WFLA) — Dozens of residents, business owners, and musicians in St. Pete Beach took to city hall to protest possible new noise restrictions. The issue wasn’t up for a vote during Tuesday’s meeting, but that didn’t stop stakeholders from beating the drum of opposition.

Musicians like Seth Campbell have real concerns about a proposal to change the noise ordinance in St. Pete Beach. It would limit excessive noise that is plainly audible within 200 feet of residential areas from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. and within 500 feet during the day.

“If they cut the music off at a certain time at night a lot of my gigs will go away. That’s bad for me, bad for my band mates, and bad for the people that come here,” Campbell said. “I also don’t think they should come in and change the culture of the area because you don’t go to New Orleans or Austin, Texas and tell them to kill the music.”

Campbell and others gathered at Chill Restaurant and Bar Tuesday. The owner, Ken Hautmann, said he was happy to offer his business as a meeting place. Hautmann said after the hurricanes, his place was just now getting back to normal but feels this ordinance would change that.

“Thursday, Friday, Saturday night we have live entertainment at night so I would say that’s about 30% of our business,” Hautmann said.

People against the ordinance marched from the restaurant down to city hall. They created signs that read “let music live,” and “now there’s a problem, why?” as well as “we like it loud.”

News Channel 8 On Your Side spoke with one woman who wanted to remain anonymous. She is a resident of St. Pete Beach who said one of the reasons she moved there was because of the vibe and access to live music. But she feels like the ordinance is about more than that.

“Especially now after these hurricanes and all our homes have been devastated. There’s a concern that some of these homes will turn into Airbnb’s. If I don’t have a way to measure that noise, 200 feet or decibels, how do I measure decibels? There’s no way for me to have a safe, quite environment which I’m entitled to as a homeowner here,” she said. “I think the ordinance just needs to be made clear. There has to be some way for residents, law enforcement, to measure what that is.”

That’s what Mayor Adrian Petrila attempted to do during the meeting. He clarified how this is not an attack on live music.

“Live music is not allowed already after 10 p.m. so how it would it impact that?” Petrila said.

The mayor talked about getting emails from a woman who retired to St. Pete Beach, who said she hasn’t been able to sleep because of loud noises.

He offered to remove the rule about the 500 feet, though some musicians argued how the 200 feet rule is also vague.

“It’s an invisible line,” said one person during public comment. “How are we supposed to know? With a decibel limit, we understand it, but yard or feet away is tough.”

Campbell offered these solutions to the commission: using decimeters to check residential areas, designate music zones or entertainment districts so when people move to the area, they know there will be music, and sound proofing grants or tax incentives for businesses who do sound remediation.

The concern was the livelihood of musicians struggling to get back to work after the hurricanes, having to face another battle of not being able to play music. Though the ordinance never specifically said that would happen.

Commissioners said they are listening and will workshop for more data and information before the second reading of the ordinance.