East Dundee banquet hall soundproofing nearly done
As soundproofing renovations to an East Dundee banquet hall near completion, village officials say the fate of its liquor license will soon be determined.
Club Royal B&V, 940 Dundee Ave., has been under fire for repeatedly violating village noise ordinances. Since owner Jaime Benitez and his family took it over in March 2015, the banquet hall has been the subject of at least 60 noise complaints, eight of which resulted in citations, according to police records.
The village's liquor control commission late last year said the banquet hall could be at risk of having its liquor license revoked or suspended if operators didn't find an effective solution. In an attempt to mitigate the noise, Benitez hired a sound engineer and began making improvements to the building.
Those upgrades are about 90 percent complete, Village Attorney Jim Binninger said Monday, and it'll soon be up to the liquor commission to determine how to move forward.
"We're getting to a point where we're going to have to make a decision on whether we're going to go to a hearing, or whether or not those improvements he's made are going to be sufficient for the violations that he was charged with," Binninger said. "I think we need to get this thing resolved."
Commissioners will address the issue once more April 24, at which point Village President Lael Miller said they will "bring this to a close."
"At this point, I think the board's patience is fairly thin on this issue," he said.
The banquet hall, which was originally built as a car dealership, had a history of noise complaints even before Benitez signed a three-year lease on the property in 2015, records show. It previously operated under different ownership as Club Premier Banquets.
The complaints against the banquet hall, most of which were made by neighboring residents, pertain largely to the ultralow bass frequencies that can be felt from inside nearby homes. In addition to soundproofing renovations, Club Royal representatives said sound engineers have installed new equipment that can limit decibel levels.
But resident Steve Ledin, who lives about 100 yards away, told liquor commissioners Monday that he could still feel the bass reverberating inside his home when the banquet hall held an event last weekend.
"I will not leave this alone. The noise is consuming and inescapable," he said. "This is the bottom line: I have the right not to be disturbed by my neighbor's noise."
Police Chief Terry Mee said the village won't know for certain whether the noise issues are resolved until the banquet hall holds another event after improvements have been entirely completed.