Friday, Aug. 07, 2009

Ruling looms on bands playing at ‘the sheds’

Owners of “the sheds,” storage buildings long used as practice space by local bands, are fighting a ruling that the sessions violate fire-safety laws.

Thursday, Richland County fire marshal Michael Byrd heard arguments in the case, which began last year as a neighborhood dispute over noise.

The basic issue is whether the storage buildings can be used for anything besides storage. Byrd could rule by the end of the month.

But his is just the first in a chain of opinions that may be required for Sumter Street Storage to keep renting to musicians, as it has done since opening in 1986.

“Where is the safety issue here?” owner Richard Simoneau said after the half-hour hearing.

“They ought to be the ones having to prove to us it’s unsafe.”

The metal-and-concrete storage buildings near the University of South Carolina are hallowed ground for local musicians.

Hometown legends Hootie and the Blowfish practiced their early hits there. So did the Root Doctors.

But last summer, resident Clif Judy complained about late-night noise, then took the matter to the fire marshal.

In November, deputy fire marshal Miranda Spivey ruled that bands couldn’t play at Sumter Street Storage.

The company’s lawyer, Tim Rogers, said he rents seven units there where he stores paperwork.

Just like a guitarist storing his musical instruments, or a book dealer with boxes of books, Rogers said he may spend hours at the storage buildings, combing through records.

Spivey said that people certainly must be able to “access and retrieve” their belongings.

But a sign outside “the sheds,” setting a 10 p.m. curfew, proves musicians spend a “significant” amount of their time there playing music, she said.

The case has been dormant since November.

All along, Simoneau has continued renting to bands. He’s got 19 now.

“They play all the time,” Judy said. “It’s a total disregard for the law.”

He and his lawyer, Jim Meggs, listened in on the hearing but weren’t allowed to participate.

Also there was Bernice Scott, a former member of Richland County Council. She works at Rogers’ law office.

Reach Hinshaw at (803) 771-8641.

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