Costa Mesa : Judge Denies Request for Concert Monitor
A Superior Court judge Thursday denied a neighborhood group’s request for a neutral party to monitor noise from concerts at the Pacific Amphitheatre.
“We were simply asking for assurance that they would be held in compliance with an order from a previous judge to reduce noise levels,” Richard L. Spix, attorney for Concerned Citizens of Costa Mesa Inc., said of the amphitheater’s management.
Denial of the motion was the latest development in a 12-year legal battle over noise levels during concerts at the amphitheater.
The 8,500-seat concert venue will open for a summer run on July 7. Except for last year’s Orange County Fair, the amphitheater has been closed since 1993.
In the past few months, the amphitheater’s new management has been retooling the sound system and booking jazz, classical, light rock and country music acts that will not generate high noise levels.
But Spix said the Concerned Citizens group is skeptical that the efforts of SMG Facility Management will prevent concert sounds from reaching residents of the Mesa del Mar area of Costa Mesa.
“They have tried it before and have not achieved success,” Spix said. If the citizens group is not satisfied with the latest efforts to suppress noise, he said, it will consider further legal action.
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