POPULAR Freo country music bar Honky Tonk has applied to expand to the upstairs level of its High Street home, but not all West End residents are happy.
At Fremantle council’s meeting on Wednesday night, the expansion was deferred following a stoush between Honky Tonk’s owners and surrounding residents.
Several West End residents, including Nic Capozzi, voiced their concerns about noise from the bar, saying it’s “killing” inner-city living.
“We’ve been getting noise readings since they moved in, in June 2023… they’re over the limit, and not by a little bit,” Mr Capozzi said.
“The City sends them a letter, they say they’ll get it rectified, they’ll say it’s been fixed, we get the testing done again, and they’ll be over the limit… this gets repeated and repeated and repeated.
The City of Fremantle has completed “extensive” and sometimes “random” noise testing in surrounding apartments and within the bar, which has shown Honky Tonk “to be compliant with City standards”, according to Honky Tonk owner Joshua Paparo.
“When they talk about noise they have in their flats and when the council measures it, a lot of it is street noise, it’s the traffic, it’s air conditioning units on nearby restaurants,” Mr Paparo said.
“There’s always rumbles in the background when you’re in a city and I think it’s a bit disingenuous to say you’re measuring the sound in your flat, and you say all of it is a result of this bar… that just isn’t true.”
Mr Paparo says he’s offered to speak to the residents but has been met “with ire”.
“One resident called me the day we got the first development application approved to do the downstairs fit out, and there was a lot of raised talk, and a lot of threatening, and the conversation ended with them saying we’ll never get the bar open.
Threatening
“Yes, I can mediate and sit down, but that was the position in 2022 that has carried on until last night, and I just wonder if they are ever going to be at a point where they can sit and mediate and speak about what is going on here.”
Conversely, Mr Capozzi says he was told by Honky Tonk’s owners that it was “not [their] problem”.
“I’ve got two tenants who sleep with earplugs in their bedroom because they can’t sleep,” he said.
At the meeting, another resident claimed the alleyway behind Honky Tonk was full of shattered glass which they blame on the country bar.
“I’ve put three complaints forward, and in each case, it’s been denying all liability, shift blame, and do nothing about it,” the resident said.
Mr Paparo says the bar now dumps its glass waste the morning after service, has installed locks on its bins and sweeps regularly, so doesn’t believe the mess is theirs.
The Honky Tonk owner says the bar will be “doing our bit” to minimise noise if the upstairs proposal goes ahead and believes they can co-exist with residents.
“It’s going to cost $200,000 to double-glaze 66 windows, to put in 500sqm of double-layered soundboard,” Mr Paparo said.
“Currently, there’s no real onus on a person building a property in Freo for residential purposes to use anything other than thin glass… I just believe there should be some onus on a developer building a residential lot in an entertainment precinct to build to a code.”
Mr Capozzi is not happy with this claim.
“[Mr Paparo] seems to think that we should build our apartments to accommodate his nightclub… we were there for 10 years before he was,” he said.
“He’s moved into a building that was built in the 1800s, which was never built for a live venue, it wasn’t built for the acoustics.”
It was “not the initial plan” to expand boot scooting upstairs, but the bar’s popularity brings great opportunity, according to Mr Paparo.
“As the onset of the country music revival and the popularity of line dancing has occurred, we can definitely utilise the space in a number of different ways,” Mr Paparo said.
“Because it’s such a beautiful heritage space and it’s been so lovingly restored by the building’s owner, it’s got the potential for art exhibitions, comedy nights, and line dancing lessons up there.”
by KATHERINE KRAAYVANGER