Orthodox Jews file lawsuit against Volusia County bar City Limits over noise complaint
VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. - A group of neighbors joined together to file a lawsuit against a restaurant and bar in DeLand.
The group of people suing are Hasidic Jews. They aren’t the only ones making complaints, just the ones who filed the lawsuit.
They moved to this area over the past five years or so, seeking a place where they could have an open space with peace and quiet.
They had it for a while, but say the business across the street shattered that dream.
"We came here when this was a beautiful, calm town," said Elanit Rich, one of the people involved in the lawsuit.
She says at this point, although they’re bothered by the noise, they can’t just up and move. They bought homes, they run businesses, and they need to be close to the synagogue down the street.
They said they aren’t asking for the restaurant to stop its practices – just to quiet down a little and comply with Volusia County’s noise ordinance.
"Saturday nights, my whole bedroom, literally, I could feel the vibration from the windows. That's how bad it gets some weeks," said Jacob Eckstein, another neighbor. "It goes until 1 or 2 a.m."
Another woman, Ann Ishenko, testified under oath that the noise by the bar was so bad, she moved about a half mile further down the road, and that she still sometimes hears the music.
Peter Ferrentino took this space over a few years ago.
"It's like the old school cheers bar," Ferrentino said. "Everybody knows each other."
City Limits, which sits right at the line between DeLand and DeLeon Springs, is a bar and restaurant by day. They host lots charity events and fundraisers on the weekends.
But at night, the music goes on and the deputies come out.
Body camera video shows occasion after occasion where Volusia County Sheriff’s deputies showed up to ask the bar to turn down its music, or the speakers a live band is using.
"It’s the band. We just got like nine 9-1-1 calls back to back," body camera shows one deputy telling employees at the bar.
In October 2022, right around the owners’ one-year anniversary at their new location, the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office found City Limits "directly violate[d]" the County’s noise ordinance, and that there had been twenty other noise complaints in the three months prior.
Those complaints have continued rolling in; the Sheriff’s Office told me they’ve gotten five more in just the past couple weeks.
The deputies are friendly and understanding, often remarking about how often they’re called out. In some instances, body camera video shows the deputies expressing that they don’t feel the bar was particularly noisy; on other occasions, they remark at the noise being intrusive.
Ferrentino told FOX 35 News reporter Marie Edinger that deputies have gone out 186 times, and he always turns the music down when he’s asked.
The plaintiffs in the case agreed that does happen. But they say it never lasts.
"Half an hour later the music goes right back up," said Rich.
But Ferrentino says he’s never been fined, never had any sort of crack-down from the Sheriff’s Office or County.
"Isn’t this America? Aren't you allowed to run a business?" said Ferrentino. "I mean, just because a religion or a group or people don't like the business…it's still legal. So why should I change for that reason? If I was never told I was in the wrong?"
"You want to do that? No problem," said Rich. But, she added, "Go put it somewhere more inside where you don't have families with little kids living right across the street from you. It's just not fair, you know?"
The plaintiffs say they just want some quiet.
The people filing the lawsuit had hoped for injunctive relief – meaning the bar would have to quiet down until this is all worked out in the courts.
A judge denied that request, saying the plaintiffs should have had more people testify – and that those who did testify didn’t provide strong enough evidence.
A private investigator the plaintiffs hired testified that he’d measured the decibel levels at the restaurant to be consistently well over the legal limit.
"We're not asking anything above the law," said Michael Rich, Elanit’s husband, explaining they don’t want the restaurant to close but merely to quiet down and comply with the County’s noise ordinance.
But the judge said the decibel readings the private investigator provided might not be enough. The readings were only 30 seconds apiece, and Volusia County’s ordinance specifies that the noise should be registered over a ten-minute period.
Plus, the entertainment manager at City Limits, Jeffrey Stolowitz, testified that he measured the decibels as being below the limit. Ferrentino says he’s offered for the plaintiffs to come out to City Limits and work with him to reach a compromise, deciding a sound level they all agree is appropriate. The plaintiffs disagree about how that offer was presented, and are moving forward with their lawsuit.