A Hue and Cry Over a Batting Cage : Burbank: A high school baseball coach awaits trial on charges that his business violates city noise ordinances.

Dave Johnson would rather forget his first season as Burbank High baseball coach.

For openers, the Bulldogs have a 5-13-1 record and are 2-12 in Foothill League play entering today’s season-finale against Alhambra.

“I knew it would be rough,” said Johnson, who inherited a fourth-place team. “I told the administration when I was hired that I didn’t expect to win many games the first year.”

Neither did he expect to be involved in a season-long legal rhubarb with Glendale city officials over his operation of the Glendale Batting Cage--a fixture at 620 E. Colorado St. since 1965. But Johnson has been forced to answer to attorneys and city inspectors about as often as he answers to umpires.

“It hasn’t really affected the team, but it’s taxed my enthusiasm for life, I can tell you that,” Johnson said.

Although the season’s final pitch draws near, Johnson’s headaches are going into extra innings.

Johnson, 31, is scheduled to stand trial Wednesday in Glendale Municipal Court on two misdemeanor counts of violating the city’s noise ordinances. The batting center, which Johnson has owned since 1982, was determined last fall by city officials to be operating in excess of the legal 65-decibel noise limit in commercial zones.

Johnson also faces misdemeanor charges that he has an illegal advertising sign above the batting cage and that the facility’s now-closed snack bar is illegal for that purpose.

For 18 months, tenants of an apartment building behind the batting cage, as well as owners of neighboring businesses, have complained about excessive noise generated by balls hitting bats and balls striking metal posts. They also have complained about clanging gates, disorderly patrons and noise made by baseballs being loaded into automatic pitching machines.

According to neighbors, Johnson has repeatedly reneged on promises to make adjustments to lessen the noise. In a letter to the Glendale City Council, Robert P. Paone, a tenant of the neighboring apartments, said that, “No changes of any kind have been made” and “(Johnson) simply doesn’t want to be bothered.’ ”

Charges were filed in January as a last resort, according to Assistant City Atty. Ron Braden, after Johnson repeatedly failed to heed instructions from city officials to comply with noise regulations.

“It was an ongoing problem,” Braden said. “Mr. Johnson was told several times . . . that the noises were exceeding regulations and he has not complied.”

The maximum penalty for each violation is a $500 fine and six months in jail. Braden, however, said he will seek a three-year probationary period for Johnson with the condition that he comply with all noise ordinances.

“If he complies by keeping the noise down, that’s what we’re interested in,” Braden said.

Johnson argues that he is being characterized as “a bad guy” who is uncooperative and unsympathetic to community concerns.

“I’m being treated like I’m selling pornography or crack cocaine or something,” he said.

Johnson claims that he has made repeated efforts to comply with city regulations and appease his neighbors--so much so that he has become frustrated with city officials.

Johnson said he has applied for a permit for his sign and that he has asked city officials if he could use his snack bar for storage. In both cases, he said, the city has not replied.

Last spring, Johnson shut down the two batting cages nearest the apartment complex. He also says he has encouraged patrons to use quieter foam-filled bats and has experimented with the use of softer rubber baseballs.

“He had me hitting some of those balls to hear what it sounded like,” said Jeremy Sparks, a pitcher for Burbank High. “There was a major difference. They’re softer and they don’t make as much noise.”

In addition, Johnson has covered exposed metal pipes and pitching machines with rubber padding. But those efforts, Braden said, have fallen short.

“In my opinion, he hasn’t done everything he can to comply,” Braden said. “We have two (noise) readings that indicate he has not complied. I don’t know what steps he has taken since the filing of the complaint. The problem is (that) he didn’t take those steps before the complaint was filed.”

Not so, according to Johnson. He said he had asked city officials which measures he could take to quiet the facility and subsequently acted on their suggestions. He was told by one city noise inspector last summer that the batting cage would be in compliance if Johnson simply would cover exposed metal surfaces with the aforementioned padding.

Johnson did and believed the matter closed. By December, however, threats of legal action once again surfaced. “They keep saying, ‘What you’ve done is not enough,’ ” Johnson said.

Four sound experts have conducted tests to determine whether the batting cage was in violation of noise regulations. One hired by Johnson said the facility was not in violation. City officials were forced to void the results of two tests because of errors in the use of measuring devices.

Last July and October, city officials finally were satisfied with two tests that indicated that the batting cage indeed was too loud.

Johnson argued that he was never informed of the results of the final two tests and therefore not given an opportunity to comply. But Braden said that the city was not obligated to notify Johnson of the latter tests.

“It is his responsibility to comply with the law,” Braden said. “The city does not have to notify him if he has complied or tell him how to comply. . . . My concern is that (the batting cage) may be in compliance at any given point in the day, but it’s going to go back to prior levels (of noise).”

For the most part, Johnson has struck out trying to make amends. Now he’ll go to bat in court.