Business & Tech
Dock of the Bay Owner Vows to Bring Back Live Music
A four-year legal battle to stop music at the Dock of the Bay restaurant is far from over, according to owner Lawrence Thanner. New plans call for bands to be put on a boat stationed off the restaurant's pier, or a floating bandstand on a raft.
The owner of the Dock of the Bay restaurant vows to resume outdoor live music next spring, undaunted by four years' of costly legal battles, including being cited for contempt of court and threatened with incarceration over the music.
"This is not about me against my neighbors," Lawrence Thanner, the owner of the Millers Island restaurant, told Dundalk Patch. "It's about me being singled out by the county. I have principles, and I have to be able to look at myself in the mirror."
After being cited for contempt in November for continuing to play live music in violation of county orders, affirmed by the courts, Thanner complied, removed his custom sound system and agreed to stop the outdoor music.
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But now he says live music will play on next spring, with everything from bands to duos to solo acts and karaoke performers on a floating bandstand.
Thanner, 61, said moving the music to the water would enable the restaurant to circumvent the county's zoning jurisdiction and instead come under state laws.
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"Under the state, I can get a fair hearing," he said.
Patch tried to contact neighbors who had complained about the noise but reached only one, who declined to comment or be identified.
An investment with great potential
Thanner, a longtime developer and property manager, purchased the waterfront restaurant at 9025 Cuckold Point Road for more than $1 million in 2003, saying he saw great potential.
"How could I go wrong by having more than an acre on the Chesapeake Bay?" he said.
Little did he know his investment would eventually cost him $50,000 in legal fees, potentially $30,000 in fines and even threaten his freedom with the judge's ultimatum when he was cited for contempt.
Thanner says from 2004 to 2005, no one complained about the live music, three days a week during the boating season. In fact, Thanner said, restaurants on Millers Island and throughout the county have had live outdoor music for years.
Thanner said his troubles began in part when people who purchased lots adjoining his restaurant built homes. Soon after, Thanner began getting weekly visits from the county police saying that neighbors were complaining about the volume of the live music.
Thanner maintains the music music's volume never exceeded noise levels allowed by county ordinances.
"The police would listen to the volume of the music, and they didn't think it was too loud, Thanner said. "Finally, the police stopped coming."
Thanner said he wonders why someone would build a house next to a restaurant that has always had live music and expect it to suddenly cease.
Fight escalates
The music continued.
However, Thanner claims he wanted to be a good neighbor, so he invested $25,000 on a tent, complete with insulated walls to absorb some of the sound. He also points out that the music fare he provided for his customers would be classified as easy-listening.
"It was never hard rock or anything like that," he said.
At the end of 2006, the neighbors fired their first legal volley. They hired a lawyer and filed a complaint with the county zoning board saying that Thanner didn't have a permit for the tent and that he was operating a night club and not a restaurant.
County documents show a code enforcement hearing officer, Raymond S. Wisnon Jr. found on Aug. 25, 2006 that Thanner had violated a building code by erecting the tent without a permit and that his restaurant was, in fact, operating as a "nightclub." Thanner was ordered to remove the tent and cease all live music.
Thanner said he immediately decided to appeal the decision and continue his fight to assert his rights as a citizen and business owner—and to prove he was not operating a nightclub.