Local News in Brief : Costa Mesa : Fair Board to Consider Amphitheater Buyout

The Orange County Fair Board voted Thursday to consider buying out the lease and facilities of the Pacific Amphitheatre, operated by Ned West Inc. on the state-owned fairgrounds in Costa Mesa.

The vote was expected. Board member Larry Arnold last week suggested that attorneys research the cost of a buyout. State Deputy Atty. Gen. Ed Dubiel told board members Thursday that he could come back with an answer within 60 days.

Ned West, which operates the 18,500-capacity, open-air concert bowl under a 40-year lease with the state, has put the value of its remaining lease and the amphitheater at $20 million.

“We’re generally encouraged that the fair board is thinking seriously of buying the lease,” said Russell Millar, a spokesman for Concerned Citizens of Costa Mesa, a neighborhood anti-noise group that sued Ned West in 1984 over noise complaints.

But unless the Fair Board can guarantee that sound volumes at the amphitheater will remain under county noise standards, Millar said his group will remain opposed to any operator.

If the Fair Board succeeds in buying back the lease and becomes the new operator of the facility, it is protected by state law from being sued by area homeowners with volume complaints, Dubiel said. Those homeowners complaining could have their homes purchased by the state under so-called inverse condemnation, he said.

The Concerned Citizens are to return to Orange County Superior Court on Tuesday for trial of their lawsuit against Ned West and the Fair Board before Judge Richard J. Beacom.