A popular north suburban winery is shutting down its public wine tastings and outdoor concerts and putting the blame on a proposed municipal noise ordinance.

Daniel’s Family Vineyard and Winery said the McCordsville plan is forcing it to close the 80-acre winery to the public and instead host only private events. The announcement ignited a furor online, with many people saying the town had stymied its main cultural and entertainment attraction.

Lisa Moyer, a 45-year-old McCordsville resident, registered her frustration on the town's Facebook page before telling IndyStar the town needs to do a better job of supporting local businesses.

"This is just sad, there is nothing else in town," said Moyer, whose family owns a small business nearby in Indianapolis. "People are coming here just to go there."

Daniel’s co-owner Daniel Cook said a noise ordinance that was being drafted would make outdoor concerts, the linchpin of its public activities, impractical to host.

“Due to the new restrictive noise ordinance enacted by the town of McCordsville, along with constraints and difficulties with other issues presented by the town council, it is in the best interest of the Daniel’s Vineyard to close our current location of the tasting room to the public and explore other locations,” he said in a news release.

But McCordsville Town Manager Tonya Galbraith said the new ordinance has not been voted on yet and is still being tinkered with. She said the town spent all summer working with the winery and other interested parties to craft what she thought was a good compromise plan.

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“This is very disappointing," Galbraith said. "They are an important business to us, and we like them very much. We hired a noise consultant and just bought a decibel meter.”

Cook asserted that the ordinance under discussion was not satisfactory and was no better than an intermediate ordinance the town passed in February that prompted the winery to cancel almost all its outdoor concerts over the summer.

"It doesn’t seem that the town can come to a viable conclusion," he said in an email to IndyStar. "The requirements that they suggested to us do not make any sense. We had several meetings, and were working toward finding an agreeable and measurable decibel level, however that never came to be."

That measure was enacted after neighbors last year complained that the concerts were too loud and went on too late. The new law made it a violation if the music could be heard 20 feet outside a resident’s property line.

But even with the new law, Daniel’s first concert of a summer series on June 1 drew about a dozen noise complaints. The police told the band to turn the music down and issued the vineyard a citation.

Daniel and Kim Cook, the husband-and-wife team that opened the vineyard in 2010, then shut down their outdoor concerts and moved the public events inside. A committee met several times over the summer, and it was close to settling on an ordinance that required decibel levels of about 66 (just more than the sound of a normal conversation) at the property lines. The city planned to test if music at that level could still be heard inside some homes, Galbraith said.

Passing a new ordinance required compromise on all sides, Galbraith said, but the Cooks never appeared to consider repositioning the stage to direct music away, from the closest homes, sound-proofing or simply turning down the volume.

On the McCordsville Facebook page, where the town council posted an announcement of the decision by Daniel's, more than 100 people posted comments, almost all of them critical of the city.

Some commenters said the city was appeasing a small group of residents in nearby in subdivisions such as Geist Woods Estate at the expense of the town's greater economic and cultural good. Others said the ordinance sends a bad signal to businesses considering relocating to the fast-growing but still small suburb of 6,000.

The town council said it has a responsibility to consider the interests of everyone in McCordsville.

"The town council have been working diligently on the issue of how to preserve the peace and quiet of surrounding neighborhoods and to support Daniel's Vineyard," its statement on Facebook reads. "As representatives of the town, we strive to work for our residents and our businesses."

Not everyone blamed the city, however.

"Thank you town council for considering ALL residents during this decision," wrote Darla Duhammel. "On a side note, I’ve never thought of a winery as a “family fun place.”

The Cooks harvest 14,000 vines but last year built a banquet hall, event center and outdoor music stage, and the winery was able to host a variety of events, from weddings to corporate lunches.

“We have loved serving the community and hosting thousands since opening a year and a half ago,” Daniel Cook said in his news release, “but without the support of the town council of McCordsville, where the vineyard resides, we have to re-evaluate our business plan."

Daniel's will continue to host private events, including nonprofit organization fundraisers and social events for wine club members. Its wine is available on its the website, in local restaurants and at sporting events, groceries and liquor stores.

Call IndyStar reporter John Tuohy at 317 444-6418. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.

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