Schwab Amphitheater Gets Noise Rules Exemption
The Bend City Council moved forward Wednesday night with two much-discussed ordinances, but a late change in one raised some eyebrows and the other barely proceeded on a 4-3 vote.
The council held a second first reading — you read that right — on a new noise ordinance for concerts and other such events, after city staff made some late revisions.
The one that drew the most attention: what Councilor Mark Capell called a “fairly blanket exemption” from most of the rules for the Les Schwab Amphitheater, scene of the city’s largest concerts.
The ordinance doesn’t mention the venue by name but adds a new exemption for sound “generated at concerts at an outdoor amphitheater with a capacity of at least 5,000 people between the hours of 7 a.m. and 10 p.m., provided that concerts or outdoor entertainment events are a permitted land use on the property.”
In Bend, now, only the amphitheater fits.
“I love 10 barrel and I love Brother Johns, and I have a house over there but I understand the residents too,” said a west side Bend resident Thursday afternoon. “So 10 o’clock is a good time.”
Capell did give kudos to the amphitheater officials for “an outstanding job” of working with neighbors and to resolve noise complaints, but said if the site were sold one day to “someone who isn’t so community-minded,” the ordinance might have to be modified.
“Where we had most of the complaints were by dense corridors like Galveston St. and along 14th,” said Bend City Councilor Scott Ramsay Thursday Morning. “There are a lot of houses in with businesses and that tends to be where most of the complaints were coming from. Les Schwab has a little bit of a different circumstance than that.”
The only no vote for the new first reading — Councilor Jim Clinton, who said the rules had been turned around, from protecting residents affected by noise to focusing on noise generators — some getting more preference than others. But while colleague Scott Ramsay said he felt the new rules (decibel levels and the like, along with permit requirements) were too restrictive, Capell suggested putting them in place and seeing how they work.
“Music is such a huge and vital part of our economy and tourism,” said Ramsay. “We knew that there had to be some flexibility in the code in one of the areas.”
“If there are any future amphitheaters built in Bend, they’ll be built with the same type of parameters that the Old Mill is built, in their own location and they won’t be close to City Centers so it (noise ordinance) will apply to them as well,” said Ramsay.
The council also held a public hearing (where no one testified) and a first reading on a crackdown on false alarms, discussed over the past two months by councilors due to an estimated city police cost of $111,000 per year.
Police Chief Jeff Sale said recent changes include exempting residential alarms not monitored by an alarm company from the requirement to register with the city (a move in part to find the responsible party for false alarms). The council will decide whether to charge a fee for the alarm registration.
Sale said he’ll propose fines of $100 for the first false alarm, $150 for the second and $300 for third and subsequent alarms.
But the motion passed by a slim 4-3, with councilors Jodie Barram, Capell, Jim Clinton and Kathie Eckman in favor and Mayor Jeff Eager and colleagues Scott Ramsay and Tom Greene opposed.
Councilors also were asked by several speakers, and again declined to join 200 other cities around the nation in a resolution supporting the overturning of the Citizens United ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that allows unlimited campaign spending by corporations.
Critics said the ruling that corporations are equal to persons and money is free speech will corrode democracy and the election process, but several councilors expressed reticence at getting involved with federal matters beyond the city’s control.
