A month after Montclair abruptly removed the community piano from Church Street following noise complaints from nearby residents, the instrument is finally headed back.
Third Ward Councilor Rahum Williams told The Montclair Pod on Friday that he and piano organizer Jeremy Pholwattana met with township administrators on August 19 and worked out a possible plan to return the piano to Church Street. The proposal is now being reviewed by the township’s Legal Department.
“I believe we were able to come up with a plan that could result in the piano returning to Church Street soon,” Williams said.
The apparent breakthrough comes after weeks of frustration for Pholwattana, who says he was never notified before township officials removed the piano in July.
Why the Township Removed the Piano
Pholwattana is the founder of Downtown Montclair, a nonprofit that advocates for the town’s business district, and a six-year Church Street business owner himself. He also runs Church Street Live, the weekend concert series that brings amplified music to the block each summer, and founded Montclair Art, the nonprofit behind the community piano project.
When Pholwattana walked over one morning last month to uncover the Church Street piano and found it missing, he initially thought it had been stolen and called police.
It had actually been removed by the township.
Williams says the decision followed complaints from people living nearby.
“The Town removed the piano from the public right of way on Church Street after receiving complaints from residents in the area about the piano being played at various times during the night, which they found disruptive,” Williams said.
According to Williams, the township has not received similar complaints about the community pianos elsewhere in Montclair, which remain in place.
That helps explain why Church Street was treated differently, although questions remain about why Pholwattana was not contacted before the piano was removed.
How a World Cup Idea Became a Downtown Tradition
The piano project traces back to World Cup season, when Pholwattana criticized the town’s muted response to hosting matches nearby, telling the Pod that Montclair “looks pathetic” during a tournament of that scale and “is supposed to be a destination spot.”
The pianos were part of his answer: decorated instruments (the Church Street piano was painted with World Cup-themed colors) placed downtown, in Upper Montclair and in the South End, with another planned for the Watchung area.
Before installing the Church Street piano, Pholwattana says he received approval from the township’s Code Enforcement Department, which is why its sudden removal surprised him.
The question was never simply whether the township could regulate an object sitting in a public right of way. It was why something that had initially received municipal approval could disappear without its organizer being notified or given an opportunity to address the complaints first.
The First Compromise Didn’t Work
About two weeks ago, Williams met privately with Pholwattana to try to find a solution.
Williams proposed returning the piano to Church Street but moving it to the eastern end of the block near the flagpole. The township would also require the piano to be locked at a certain hour each evening.
Pholwattana rejected the relocation.
“I respectfully do not believe that solves the issue,” he told the council during its August 11 meeting. “I think we would be simply solving one problem while creating another. We all know the history of concerns surrounding music being played at the end of that block.”
Williams confirmed that account, saying Pholwattana informed him several days after their meeting that he would not agree to the proposal for the reasons he later outlined publicly.
Pholwattana had instead pushed for putting the piano back in its original location while locking it during specified nighttime hours.
At the August 11 council meeting, he said he believed such an arrangement had been agreed upon and was awaiting temporary written permission from the township. When that permission did not arrive, he brought the issue publicly before the council.
A New Deal May Put the Piano Back
The dispute did not end there.
On August 19, Williams, Pholwattana and members of the township’s administrative staff met again.
Williams would not disclose the exact terms of the latest proposal, but said the group had worked toward “a plan that would allow the piano to return to Church Street while also establishing reasonable parameters to ensure that it does not create a disruptive environment for nearby residents.”
The township’s lawyers are now reviewing it.
“I am hopeful that we have found a solution that strikes the right balance between supporting Jeremy’s placemaking initiative and being respectful of the residents who live in the area,” Williams said.
Williams also stressed that he supports the broader project.
“As an aside, I am generally supportive of the placemaking concept and, specifically, Jeremy’s piano initiative,” he said, joking that there is apparently video somewhere of him playing “a pretty awful rendition of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony” on the very piano now sitting in storage.
The Larger Church Street Debate
The piano dispute has attracted plenty of public support. A Change.org petition titled “Bring Back the Church Street Community Piano”, launched by Downtown Montclair on July 16, has collected nearly 600 verified signatures.
The petition asks the township not only to return the piano but also to explain how complaints about public art are handled and establish a clearer process before removal becomes the first response.
That process may ultimately be the more consequential issue.
Williams has now explained why the piano was removed: residents complained about late-night playing. But the episode also shows how quickly a relatively small quality-of-life dispute can escalate when the person responsible for an approved public installation learns about a complaint only after the installation has disappeared.
And the piano is not Church Street’s only sound dispute.
In July, according to reporting by The Montclair Local, Fresco Da Franco owner Franco Porporino Jr. filed a tort claim against the township over amplified noise associated with Church Street Live.
The circumstances are different, but the tension underneath them is similar: Church Street is simultaneously a restaurant corridor, entertainment destination, public gathering place and residential neighborhood. Making all four coexist means deciding not simply whether music belongs there, but when, where and how loudly.
For the piano, at least, there may finally be an answer.
