Amphitheater concerns take center stage

Jennifer Kho

COSTA MESA -- Residents threw out a number of ideas for the Pacific

Amphitheatre on Wednesday, including covering the venue with a dome to

trap the noise, downsizing the theater so concerts would require less

volume and converting it into a skateboard park.

The amphitheater “was supposed to be facing the other way, not toward

Mesa Verde,” said Jack Morrison, a Costa Mesa resident. “It made a lot of

people mad. And we’re still mad.”

The Pacific Amphitheatre discussion dominated Wednesday’s meeting, the

first in an effort to establish a new master plan for the Orange County

Fairgrounds.

Fair officials are beginning what could be a two-year process to amend

the fair’s master plan, a document that would govern the fairgrounds for

10 years after it is completed.

The meeting was part of initial efforts to gather public opinion about

the fairgrounds’ direction.

The tone of the previous master plan, created in the 1980s, was

commercial. It included the possibility of selling parts of the

fairgrounds for business purposes, such as a restaurant or a hotel.

Fair officials now want the fair to adopt a more community-oriented

tone and would like to find other ways to remain financially stable, such

as pursuing a corporate sponsorship, said Frank Haselton, a fairgrounds

consultant.

Karin Schnell of Santa Ana said she wanted to focus on the positive

aspects of the fairgrounds.

“I look at this as a great opportunity,” she said. “There are all

kinds of possibilities.”

But many who attended the meeting took the opportunity to express

concern about the future of the Pacific Amphitheatre.

“One of my main concerns, if a reopening were to be explored, is that

we would suffer from the noise there,” said Mike Dilsisian of Costa Mesa.

“Another one is traffic. We are really inundated with traffic during the

fair, even though I know you guys try to reduce it.”

The amphitheater has been closed since 1993, when the fairgrounds

bought it from the Nederlander Organization.

Although fair officials have no plans to reopen the amphitheater,

residents -- particularly in the College Park neighborhood -- are

concerned about the possibility.

Fair officials in 1995 began a legal battle with residents about sound

restrictions and with former owners about the purchase price when it sued

the Nederlander Organization, claiming the company had sold the

amphitheater for $12.5 million knowing sound restrictions rendered it

worthless as a concert venue.

Jeanne Brown and Laurie Lusk, both of Costa Mesa, joined the

Nederlander Organization’s side of the case to ensure sound restrictions

were kept in place.

When the fairgrounds and Nederlander reached a reported $16-million

settlement in 1998, Brown and Lusk refused to settle and, in 1999, were

ordered to pay the fairgrounds’ legal and court costs.

Bill Ward of Costa Mesa said he would have three concerns if the

fairgrounds reopened the amphitheater.

“The number of people, the type of people and the number of decibels,”

he said.

But Richard Brunette, another Costa Mesa resident, said he hopes the

theater is reopened.

“The problem seems to be that the whole facility is too big, so it

needs too much sound to reach all the people,” he said. “If we downsized

it, maybe it would not need so much sound.”