Fort Myers man battles downtown bar over loud music

FORT MYERS, Fla. Peter Martin has had enough.

He and his wife lived at the Fort Myers Yacht Basin for the last four years, but were forced to move their house boat after their noise complaints about the music from Sky Bay fell on deaf ears.

“Imagine trying to watch TV or go to bed and go to sleep — and that’s in the room,” he said. “It is absolutely water torture.”

The sound limit for a business, which applies to a radius of 50 feet, is 75 decibels until after 2 a.m., when it drops to 70.

“It’s horrible, the police can’t do anything about it — you know they’re completely out of code,” he said. “I don’t know what else to do.”

Although Yacht Basin residents signed a petition, called police multiple times and had meetings with city officials, Martin wasn’t provided with a resolution he could live with.

“I really feel like Fort Myers is not taking care of their residents,” he said.

The owner of Sky Bar, Kearns Restaurant Group, does decibel readings hourly every night, they said, and have never received a citation for noise from Fort Myers police.

Martin, who owns Profiles Downtown nail salon on First Street, complies with every city code and believes other businesses should as well.

“I’ve got no problem with downtown building up, I love it” he said. “But I don’t love it when somebody thinks they’re above the law — that’s what I have trouble with.”