Residents Lose Appeal Over Amphitheater Noise

A group of Costa Mesa residents was handed another defeat in its longstanding battle over noise from the Pacific Amphitheatre when a state appellate court upheld the decibel standards set for concerts.

“I don’t understand the justices’ ruling,” said attorney Richard L. Spix, who represented the group, Concerned Citizens of Costa Mesa Inc. “The noise level was set too high.”

He said the current noise levels were similar to “finding out how fast a car can possibly go and then setting the speed limit five miles higher.”

But the 4th District Court of Appeal justices last week unanimously rejected the group’s argument. The justices also refused to declare the amphitheater’s concerts a public nuisance.

The opinion, written by Presiding Justice David Sills, upholds a decibel limit that was imposed by Orange County Superior Court Judge Richard J. Beacom.

The appeal was the latest in the residents’ attempts over the past seven years to control the operations of the amphitheater.

Since the lawsuit was filed, a revised amplification system and sound barriers have reduced the decibel level somewhat, but the residents who live within earshot of the open-air theater still maintain that concerts are too loud and disruptive.

Spix said an appeal to the state Supreme Court was “unlikely.”