Local News in Brief : Costa Mesa : Noise, Traffic Curbs Set for Amphitheater

In an effort to reduce traffic and noise near the Pacific Amphitheatre, representatives of the Orange County Fair Board, the Costa Mesa City Council and operators of the amphitheater agreed Tuesday to close all entrances to the open air bowl to foot traffic, except the one on Fair Drive.

Costa Mesa City Councilman Orville Amburgey said he hopes that the restriction, which takes effect Friday night, will discourage concert-goers from parking free on nearby side streets.

Hours later, lawyers for Ned West Inc.--the firm that operates the amphitheater--and a citizens’ group met to listen to a new speaker system that is supposed to decrease noise by aiming sound down into the crowd instead of out toward the surrounding neighborhood.

Ellwyn Brickson of the county Health Care Agency monitored the sound but will not have results from the test until later this month, according to Richard L. Spix, an attorney for Concerned Citizens of Costa Mesa.

Superior Court Judge Richard J. Beacom ordered the test in an effort to resolve a 4-year-old lawsuit against Ned West, but he excluded reporters at the request of lawyers for the firm, according to Amburgey, who heard the sound demonstration.

The test reportedly did little to appease the dozen angry residents who were allowed inside the amphitheater to hear it.

“I’m not encouraged from what I hear,” said Russell Millar, president of the Concerned Citizens. “I don’t think any number of speakers will work until they turn down the sound.”