The Fountain Hills Town Council last week heard a dispute between CoperWynd Resort and the owners of nearby villas in reference to temporary use permits allowing the resort to conduct outdoor weddings and receptions past the hour of 10 p.m.

According to the meeting’s backup material, the town revised its Temporary Use Permit regulations back in 2013 to allow for events that, according to the Zoning Administrator, “would not be detrimental to the immediately surrounding area of Town.”

However, having received an objection to the issuance of such permits for late-running CopperWynd events, the request must now be presented to Town Council for decision.

And that’s exactly what happened on April 7, with several neighbors speaking out against weddings running past 10 p.m. at CopperWynd, with noise pollution being the driving cause. One resident spoke in favor of Copperwynd’s extended hours, as well as representatives from the resort itself.

In the end, both the villa owners and CopperWynd offered several suggestions to mitigate noise pollution past 10 p.m. including aiming speakers toward the facility, the disuse of subwoofers, finding a comfortable decibel level, etc.

CopperWynd representatives also offered restricting last call at such events to 10:30 p.m. with the outdoor bar closing at 11.

With several weddings planned in the coming weeks, it was determined that CopperWynd and its event coordinators could do a trial run of these measures and then meet with the affected home owners to determine if additional matters were needed.

Councilmember Dennis Brown said that, based on the conversation during the meeting, he saw a situation that both parties were willing to work on in order to find a mutually beneficial resolution. He suggested a “cooling off period” in which various steps be taken to solve the problem. Mayor Linda Kavanagh agreed, saying that she felt like the matter was already on the road to resolution.

The item was tabled until the second meeting in May to allow for CopperWynd to attempt to bring the noise level down without negatively impacting events.