At one time it was the most talked about issue in the city, pitting a rock star against a dance fitness studio owner in the court of public opinion.

But the city moved forward at executive committee Monday with noise bylaw amendments that they hope will put an end to any future disagreements in the city between residents and businesses in downtown mixed use buildings.

The intent of the bylaw amendment was to adress situations in mixed use buildings and areas, but city administration got 30 responses from the public about the changes. The public’s comments focused on city-wide decibel level limits, general changes to the bylaw, greater restrictions on noise and impacts to business.

Michelle Sanson, with the city’s planning and development, said several residents expressed concerns about decibel levels across the city.

“These comments emphasize the importance of having proper exemptions in place to ensure only unreasonable noise is limited,” Sanson said. “Incorporating decibel limits to the entire city would require significant rewrite of the noise bylaw to properly exempt ordinary activities.”

Sanson said many people said the noise bylaw was adequate and that there weren’t any changes needed. But the purpose was only to provide options for the Moose Jaw Police Service in mixed use.

“The proposed changes will only be enacted in very unique situations,” she said.

Coun. Dawn Luhning expressed disappointment in how the matter blew up.

“There’s two sides to every story, and I sure wish both sides had been properly reported in this case, but I won’t go down that path,” she said. “I’ve very disappointed in the way that this has been handled by people in this community and people (on) social media because I think there’s a lot more information that hasn’t been reported. But it’s our job to fix it.”

She said she hopes that they will come to agreement with the changes and they won’t have a situation like this happen again.

“I think we have to incorporate these types of things into our noise bylaw in order to give our police department the tools they need to be able to enforce when it gets to... not a good situation,” Luhning said.

Luhning believed the decibel (dB) levels in the bylaw amendment – 70 dB – were too high and could even have been dropped to the Toronto noise bylaw of 50-55 dB, especially when it came to length of time.

“I certainly am in favour, of it’s ten minutes within 30 minute period of time, but if it’s two hours or three hours at the same level of sound, it’s unacceptable for residents who are living in the area,” she said.

The bylaw amendments passed Monday at executive committee and will come to city council in two weeks.