Colony Woodstock’s beer garden out in back of what was once a legendary hotel and has been an entertainment and music club for a more than a decade and a half has, by all accounts, been a success — but only made possible by a COVID era emergency order allowing establishments to construct outdoor spaces and bypass the normal Planning Board approvals. Now it has come time for owners Neil and Alexia Howard to seek approval, as they wish to make that space permanent.
“We were all set for our biggest weekend ever in March of 2020, I think it was about the 13th of 2020, and we chose to close down before we had to for obvious health and safety reasons,” Alexia Howard told the Woodstock Planning Board on October 7.
Then, in June 2020, Colony used emergency provisions to open its beer garden “to provide a safe space for musicians and the public to come together to experience something approximating normal at what was then a very, very difficult time,” she said.
The outdoor space at the 22 Rock City Road property is a new venture and had brought along with it some noise complaints. The Howards say they have done their best to mitigate the situation, stopping music at 10 p.m. and scheduling quieter, more acoustic acts later in the evening. “Frankly, that first complaint was triggered by a rather young prog rock band from New Paltz that, obviously, we didn’t bring back,” Alexia said. “And then based on that feedback that we got, we moved to reschedule any band type of noise to a bit earlier in the day and made efforts to constrain the noise by booking bands that didn’t have really loud, percussive music and so on.”
The Howards say they continue to tweak the schedule to minimize disruptions to the residents, but noted they are coming to the end of the outdoor season. “We hope to think that we provide a service that is generally broadly enjoyed by the community, and we’re also very happy that we’re able to continue to employ our staff and pay the musicians that have been able to join us,” Alexia Howard said. “But we’re very aware that we’ve got more work to do, and now that we understand the noise traveling issue, that we need to make efforts to both constrain the sound, as well as exploring options like noise baffling, perhaps with trees that could help to mitigate that problem.”
Neil Howard noted some of the issues arose from moving bigger acts outside due to the Delta variant. “Those guys bring their own fancy sound engineer, and we could hit them with hammers and say turn it down, and they’re like, no, these guys are loud, trust me, and we had to physically go up on stage and turn them down,” Neil Howard said. “I’m all for I’m pushing my sound guys to be very aggressive, and they’re getting the memo. Thank God, but sometimes the drummers just hit too damn hard. There’s a lot of mitigation that we’re aware of, and we’re very much on it.”
But Steve Grenadir, a local resident, said the outdoor spaces had their time and place and shouldn’t be permanent. “I really appreciate the Colony and I appreciate what they’ve done and I understand why the supervisor gave them special permission to put out this outdoor event and I think it’s really done great things during the time of COVID but this will come to an end,” he said. “But this is just opening the door. If you allow it here, it’s going to pop up all over town. I think it’s been so successful, the cash register is run, and people can see what outdoor amplified music will do for them. And I think the planning board, and the whole town has to really appreciate the soundscape that we have,” he said. “I think the Colony was doing really well indoors and I think that we should really continue to oppose any kind of amplified commercial outdoor taking of our soundscape.”
Valley acoustics are complicated
“I don’t know where the gentleman who was complaining about the noise lives relative to this, but I know that the acoustics of a valley are complicated, and it may be that there is a better site for that stage that would generate less sound in places where people live,” said Planning Board member Judith Kerman.
“There’s at least one other placement that we considered and we’re all for experimenting and trying every little thing we can do,” Neil Howard said.
Music was a childhood backdrop
“I grew up here and we’re an artist colony. And the music sounded like the hills are alive with music. It wasn’t too obtrusive. I couldn’t hear actual words, it was always very nice,” said resident Urana Kinlen. “I just want to remind everybody that last year and the beginning of this year, we were all stuck in our houses and had nowhere to go, and the owners of the Colony created an environment that was safe and we could go back out and see our community members,” she said. “And it’s also bordered by two cemeteries and a parking lot and a street. I think it’s kind of a unique place and it’s been a wonderful addition to our community out of a need and a necessity.”
The Colony site plan will be scheduled for a later public hearing.
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