The music has been turned down at one downtown Campbell restaurant, despite ownership’s insistence that it is not a loud performance venue.

On May 23 the planning commission voted 4-1 to not allow a small unpermitted DJ booth to be used at Willard Hicks.

The restaurant at 280 E. Campbell Ave. opened in 2015 at the former Ciano’s site.

“At that time the operator (Willard Hicks) installed a DJ booth without permits or without any prior approval of a new floor plan that would allow that DJ booth,” city planner Daniel Fama told the planning commission. “That DJ booth was inconsistent with the conditional use permit for a variety of reasons, primarily for the live entertainment.”

The city council does grant businesses live entertainment permits, but such entertainment is restricted to non-amplified musicians in the downtown strip. However, Fama said the city mistakenly issued a live entertainment permit to Willard Hicks’ ownership group without council approval.

“That mistake only came to light this year,” he said.

Fama said after the mistake was discovered, restaurant ownership worked with the city to apply for a live entertainment permit.

In a letter to the city, Willard Hicks co-owner Molly Adams said the restaurant has never received a complaint from neighbors or the Campbell Police Department about music or noise.

“We never meant for the restaurant to be a place of performance by any means,” Adams told commissioners. “While the music may be considered amplified, I did want to note that all of the music, whether it’s played by a DJ or an iPad, it goes through our in-house speaker system.”

While commissioners did not have a problem with the music, the commissioners explained that Willard Hicks’ permit explicitly states amplified music is not allowed in the downtown core.

Commissioner Philip Reynolds cast the dissenting vote, saying he thought the music played there was not overwhelming or even audible from outside the restaurant.