Ruling Could Bring in the Noise--and Funk--Near Fair Amphitheater

Sound restrictions that prevented concerts at Pacific Amphitheater were thrown out Thursday by an Orange County judge, a defeat for homeowners who have battled the theater for more than 10 years.

“The neighborhood will be rudely awakened,” said Richard Spix, who represented about 5,000 homeowners in a class-action lawsuit against the theater owner.

Attorneys for the owner, the Orange County Fair and Exposition Center, argued that the noise restrictions made concerts impossible and rendered the theater useless.

“This is a total victory,” said attorney Thomas Malcom, representing the fair. “It allows the fair to operate the facility as a viable commercial music venue if it chooses to.”

The ruling eliminates the 92-decibel limit (comparable to the sound of a diesel truck) at the theater’s mixing board, a restriction entertainers found impossible. The judge left in place the 86-decibel limit (a pneumatic drill) at the back of the theater, the section closest to homes.

But the ruling means live entertainment can return to the theater.

Fair officials said they will conduct a feasibility study of potential uses of the amphitheater, which would take more than a year. The study will determine what improvements are needed and will include input from the community, said Becky Bailey-Findley, general manager of the fairgrounds.

“There’s . . . the possibility that the Pacific Amphitheater will not be used as a concert facility,” Bailey-Findley said. “All options will be thoroughly explored.”

Those options, Spix said, should include a dome.

“I expect the peace and quiet that has been enjoyed by the neighbors to be causing additional land-use problems in the future,” he said. ‘We’ve got bedrooms right next to an open-air theater. If they don’t put a dome on [the amphitheater], they’re crazy.”

The ruling by Judge Robert E. Thomas stemmed from a lawsuit by the fair against the former owners, the Nederlander Organization.

Nederlander, operating under a 40-year lease on the state-owned property, sold its business to the fair for $12.5 million in 1993. The company had 30 years left on the lease, and the sale helped resolve several lawsuits over noise levels.

But the fair found that it couldn’t book any entertainers under the noise limits in the sale contract. It sued, claiming Nederlander had defrauded it by incorporating a sound covenant that made the amphitheater useless. The fair sought to rescind the contract or receive damages.

The fair also alleged that Nederlander had engaged in fraud so that the fair couldn’t compete with the Nederlander events booked at the Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim.

On June 8, just as jurors were about to reveal their verdict in the case, Nederlander agreed to settle and pay the fair $16 million.

In his ruling Thursday, Thomas in Orange County Superior Court found that Nederlander had violated anti-trust laws by setting the mixing board limit.

Some of residents received the ruling with resignation.

“We’re tired of fighting,” said Betty Griffin, who lives near the south side of the amphitheater. “It seems like all of our effort in the past was for naught.”

Another resident, Bill Ward, said the resumption of loud concerts at the venue “would not sit well with neighbors.”

But Ward, who lives 2 1/2 blocks from the facility, is hopeful that the operators will be more sensitive to residential concerns this time.

“They at least appear to be paying more attention to what the neighbors think,” Ward said. “I think they are trying to be good neighbors so I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt.”