Colorado Springs Mayor Yemi Mobolade and city staff are meeting with operators of the newly-opened Ford Amphitheater Wednesday to discuss widespread neighborhood noise complaints a day after city council members heard nearly three hours of negative public feedback on the new music venue.
The 8,000-capacity amphitheater has been met with both eager anticipation and vocal opposition since the project was initially approved in 2022. Since the debut concert — featuring the Colorado Springs band OneRepublic — on Aug. 9, the city has received about 900 complaints about the venue’s noise from people living in the surrounding area.
Lifelong resident Cheree Hutchison echoed the complaints of many neighbors, calling out noise from the recent Aug. 18 concert from reggae-pop band Iration in particular. Hutchison said she was trying to let her two young boys enjoy their backyard on the last day of their summer vacation.
“We had to cut our evening short as the band was screaming profanities that were blaring at us at over 70 decibels,” Hutchison told city council members Tuesday. Seventy decibels is the equivalent of a normal conversation according to The National Hearing Conservation Association.
“The kids were unable to fall asleep until after 11 p.m. because the bass and the screeching of the band was present in their bedrooms,” she said.
Dozens of people said the noise from the amphitheater’s weekend concerts was easily heard inside their homes, from as far as three miles away.
Council members heard stories of residents with aggravated PTSD, of needing to raise their voices to hold conversations in their bedrooms after dark, and of losing trust in the city government as well as the venue’s owners who said the concerts would not disrupt the local quality of life. Many also worried about the reduced property values that could come from living near to what they described as a persistent nuisance.
Council President Randy Helms lives near the Ford Amphitheater. He said he has wholeheartedly supported the venue and still wants it to become a major attraction for the city. Nevertheless, he has experienced the disturbances himself.
“I’ve personally been up the whole evenings of every concert, as an anecdotal unscientific view,” Helms said. “I can tell you, the citizens that are here today are speaking truth.”
The amphitheater was granted a so-called “hardship ordinance” from the city, exempting the property from city noise ordinances under certain conditions. The company predicted neighborhood noise levels during concerts would hit about 47 decibels, about as much as moderate rainfall. Fifty decibels is the ordinance limit in Colorado Springs. The venue’s hardship ordinance allows them to exceed that, however, it was unclear by how much.
Many residents said they used smartphone decibel apps to regularly capture concert sounds louder than those predictions. They advocated for more robust physical sound barriers surrounding more of the property. They also asked for the general volume of the concerts to be lowered.
Bobb Mudd, the president of Venu (formally Notes Live), a locally-based entertainment venue company that built and runs the amphitheater, also spoke to the council Tuesday. He argued the company had gone above the city’s initial requirements for the project to alleviate neighborhood concerns. Those included parking troubles, increased traffic and noise mitigation. He said the company’s initial sound studies showed that the volume level allowed during concerts would not break the city’s hardship ordinance.
“I say all that not to assuage or discount what has been said here today, but to share that we are people who predominantly live in this community and are committed to the success of this,” Mudd said. “We are committed to being a great neighbor for the long haul.”
Mudd said the Ford Amphitheater has sold 200,000 tickets for previous or upcoming concerts at the property and expects a $100 million economic boost for the city of Colorado Springs.
“We’ve had most of the hotels and the restaurants tell us of the significant benefit that it’s been to them,” Mudd said. “It has a substantial positive impact on the region.”
“I don’t care if it brings in $500 million in revenue,” said council member Dave Donelson, the lone council vote against the amphitheater project. “If the citizens who live around it have (a) miserable experience, it’s wrong and the city should do something to stop it.”
The Oklahoma City Council recently rejected a similar 12,000-capacity amphitheater proposal from Venu after residents brought forth the quality of life concerns.
