Noisy Amphitheater Hears from Lawyers Again

Frustrated that earlier court action has brought them no peace, neighbors who have had an earful of noise from Costa Mesa’s Pacific Amphitheater announced Friday that they have filed a new flurry of lawsuits.

At a news conference in Santa Ana, residents said they are fed up with the pace of settlement talks in a 6-year-old lawsuit against the 18,500-seat amphitheater by Concerned Citizens of Costa Mesa and resident Laurie Lusk, so they decided to venture into the courts themselves.

Their lawyer, Richard L. Spix, who also represents Lusk and Concerned Citizens in Superior Court, chose Municipal Court for the latest round of complaints because he thinks he can get results faster there. On Wednesday and Thursday in Municipal Court in Newport Beach, he filed about 15 complaints on behalf of 35 amphitheater neighbors. Each plaintiff seeks $25,000 in damages--the most someone may seek in Municipal Court--for nuisance and emotional distress from the noise.

Spix said he decided to file the new actions to get monetary compensation for the neighbors because the Superior Court suit sought only a noise remedy. Spix also said he hopes to make amphitheater operators realize they can reduce the noise more cheaply than they can fend off the lawsuits.

Residents said they were launched into action by a Tom Petty performance on March 3, the opening act of the amphitheater’s 1990 concert season.

“The entire performance was loud, a heavy beat,” said Norman Snow, who lives about a half-mile from the stage. “It invades the house. There’s no peace.”

Snow, 67, said he and the other neighbors have watched the Concerned Citizens’ lawsuit wind its way through the courts for six years and have given up hope that it will bring them the quiet they crave.

Since the lawsuit was filed, a revised amplification system and sound barriers have reduced the decibel level somewhat. But neighbors contend it still violates county limits and they want further reductions. Superior Court Judge Richard J. Beacom has been holding settlement talks to work out an agreement, but none has been reached yet.

“The judge has taken no action to control the noise, and in the meantime we get nailed,” said Rusty Lusk, Laurie Lusk’s husband and a plaintiff in one of the Municipal Court complaints.

Neil Papiano, an attorney for Ned West Inc., the amphitheater’s builder and owner, said the new complaints are not a productive way to lower the noise at the arena. He said it takes time to arrange and rearrange the sound barriers and amplification system to find the right solution to all the affected areas of the neighborhood.

“It’s really all being done in a reasonable fashion,” he said. “It’s not one of those things that you can just say, ‘Do it,’ and it’s done. If it were, it would be done by now.”