‘Turn Sound Down,’ Judge Says : Amphitheater Noise Cracks Court Barrier

Sound from two rock concerts at the Pacific Amphitheatre last week exceeded county limits, with the Kinks and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers blasting noise towards nearby Costa Mesa neighborhoods in levels that violated a court order, experts said Thursday.

Superior Judge Gary L. Taylor accepted the report and then ordered Ned West Inc., which stages concerts in the facility it built, to “take the necessary steps to bring itself into compliance.”

“In other words, turn the sound down,” Taylor said.

Pacific Amphitheatre manager Steven Redfearn declined comment, except to say another group, Huey Lewis and the News, will perform as scheduled tonight and Saturday night. Last month, Taylor found that Costa Mesa neighbors were justified in their complaints that noise from the concerts were interfering with the peaceful enjoyment of their homes. In half a dozen hearings since, Taylor, who ordered sound levels reduced, has sought an effective means of measuring the noise.

On Thursday, apparently he found it.

Experts appointed by Taylor to monitor the sound reported the violations over the strenuous objections of Ned West lawyers who insisted that the study was incomplete.

“There are 10,000 holes in it,” said Neil Papiano, Pacific Amphitheatre lawyer. “He (Taylor) ought to complete the report. It’s not complete.”

The court session was marred by rancorous exchanges between Taylor and Papiano, who has filed an appeal of the court order and sought unsuccessfully last week to delay its impact.

Taylor also ordered Ned West to pay up to $3,000 for the monitoring of this weekend’s concerts. Karen Millar, a member of the group that filed the lawsuit four years ago, wrote a check for $2,300 Thursday to pay for the monitoring of concerts last week.

Papiano told Taylor that he was “wrong” to accept a key conclusion of the report--that the impact of sound in the Pacific Amphitheatre can be accurately measured in neighborhoods half a mile away. Ned West has argued consistently that no true measurement of concert noise, compared to normal background noise, has been made.

More time and experiments are needed before the order should be enforced, Papiano urged.

“I’ve heard that since the beginning,” Taylor shot back. “And I’ve got the feeling that I’d be hearing that still in December after the concert season is over.”

Judge, Lawyer Spar

The judge and lawyer sparred over a recurring theme in the case: whether orders to quiet down would destroy the concert business at the amphitheatre.

“I’m a little concerned because your position has been more or less, ‘Well, the sound is there and we can’t turn it down,’ ” Taylor told Papiano.

“Yes, yes, yes, you can turn it down,” Papiano responded. “You can turn it down to zero.”

Amphitheatre officials have described how difficult it would be to turn down the sound in the middle of concerts, a key enforcement tool that Taylor did not clarify Thursday.

Should weekend concerts continue to violate the county ordinance, according to the noise experts, the neighbors’ next move would be to seek to have Ned West held in contempt of court.

But that will not happen in the next week, according to the residents’ lawyer, Richard L. Spix. Pressed on when he might seek contempt citations, Spix said, “When I decide the judge is mad enough.”