Tensions are high at Ford Amphitheater, but the noise has died down at other outdoor venues in Colorado
Following a city council meeting last month in which more than 30 residents shared concerns about excessive noise from concerts, Colorado Springs officials and Ford Amphitheater’s owner said they would work to further reduce unwanted sounds from the new, $90 million venue.
But tensions remain high in the neighborhoods around Ford, which hosted its first-ever concerts just north of Colorado Springs in August. Residents used an anonymous reporting app from the city to register more than 600 complaints in the first two weeks. Since then, they say the noise has kept them up at night, rattled their windows and made recent shows by OneRepublic, Primus and John Fogerty too easy to hear from their properties.
“We’re encouraged but skeptical,” said Jerry McLaughlin, 64, who spoke at the Aug. 27 meeting. “The trust has been broken, because what (Ford’s owners are) doing and what they said are two different things. The proof is in what they do next.”
McLaughlin is the president of the Sun Hills Homeowners Association, which represents residents in northern El Paso County between Colorado Springs and Monument. He and others said Ford’s owner, Venu, is making their lives miserable and ruining property values with uncontrolled noise streaming out of the amphitheater on concert nights.
“It’s really irritating when people say, ‘Well, you should have done something about this when it was announced,’ ” McLaughlin said. “And people did. They raised all kinds of holy hell (with city officials) and it got blessed anyway. To put that facility right smack dab where it is surrounded by houses on all sides … it doesn’t make sense.”
How it works at other venues
Officials who oversee other concert venues, like Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Fiddler’s Green, and Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, said there is no one-size-fits-all approach to fixing the problem.
Every venue and neighborhood has unique issues in trying to balance laws, homeowners’ rights, multimillion-dollar concerts, and commercial development, they said. At Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, which hosted four consecutive, highly lucrative Phish shows over Labor Day weekend, the venue predated all but a few homes in the area just north of Denver’s Central Park neighborhood, said Commerce City spokesman Travis Huntington.
“Until Beeler Park was built east of the (stadium) about six years ago, there was nobody really close to it,” he said of Dick’s, which is owned by Commerce City and operated by Kroenke Sports Enterprises. It mostly hosts sporting events but also fireworks and the occasional post-game concert.
“We have a good relationship with the venue and the newer neighbors, who are technically in Denver, and I haven’t seen hardly any complaints over the (last decade),” he said.
The situation is different at Red Rocks Amphitheatre, given that the venue has been hosting concerts for 83 years and predates the scant residences that have been built up around it in Morrison. It last updated its noise rules in 2017 in response to complaints about the increasing volume of shows there, said Brian Kitts, director of communications for Denver Arts & Venues.
“It feels like ancient history now, because there were these urban myths about how the bass in EDM (electronic dance music) was causing the rocks to move,” Kitts said. “Which is just flat-out false. We took readings from all around and agreed on a set of self-imposed rules.”
That’s because, despite being located in Jefferson County, Denver Arts & Venues owns and runs Red Rocks, which is booked primarily by Denver-based AEG Presents Rocky Mountains. There was no city authority regulating them, so it fell on them to be “good neighbors,” Kitts said.
“Our noise complaints mainly come from motorcycles and cars and trucks with loud mufflers,” said Morrison police chief Bill Vinelli. “In the 2 and 1/2 years I’ve been chief here, I honestly cannot remember any noise complaints about the venue coming across my desk.”
The closest overall comparisons to Ford Amphitheater are Coors Field and Empower Field at Mile High, Kitts said, because there are thousands of residences within a mile of both. However, the most apples-to-apples is likely Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre, the 18,000-capacity behemoth in Greenwood Village owned and operated by promoter AEG Presents Rocky Mountains.
The Greenwood Village Police Department works with Fiddler’s management on safety and security at and around the venue, per the city’s annexation agreement passed by Greenwood Village City Council in 2006.
“As part of this agreement, police monitor noise complaints received through a dedicated complaint phone line and handle each complaint on a case-by-case basis,” according to a statement provided to The Denver Post Megan Copenhaver of the city manager’s office.
City records show the venue received a total of 7 noise complaints in 2023 — or about .1% of the 600-plus that Ford received in the first two weeks after opening.
No longer an outlier
The situation in Colorado Springs may take a while to settle.
The El Paso County District Court in June had dismissed Northside Neighbors’ complaint, ruling that the City’s local noise ordinance and its allowance for “hardship permits” trump state law, according to sunsetlawsuit.org. Northside has appealed the ruling to the Colorado Court of Appeals, and oral arguments are set for this month, they said.
Ford operates under an agreement with Colorado Springs that allows it to exceed the usual 50-55 decibel (dB) limit placed on outside, human-made sounds in residential areas. Fifty dB is equivalent to normal conversation levels, car traffic or kitchen appliances. But thanks to its Noise Hardship Permit, the city raised that significantly. The agreement states that amplified sounds are not allowed to exceed more than 110 dB for five minutes at a time, or average out to 105 dB for the same amount of time.
However, each increase of 10 on the decibel scale is a tenfold increase in sound intensity and a doubling of perceived loudness, according to tech-pharmaceutical company Merck.
Sustained sounds above 110 dBs can permanently harm hearing, with examples of that volume level including jets, leaf blowers and car horns, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
Residents also launched the Ford Hurts Families website, which features a noise-complaint form and sign-up page for a newsletter. Around 43,000 people in the Northgate, Flying Horse, Greyhawk, Gleneagle, Jackson Creek, Fox Run and elsewhere could be affected by the issue, the website says.
About 80% of respondents to a recent survey by Sun Hill Homeowners Association said they have been impacted negatively by the amphitheater, according to the document. Their complaints echo those that have proliferated online and in news media reports about the venue that hosted its first concert Aug. 11.
They’re continuing to explore options such as reintroducing a class-action lawsuit against owner Venu, formerly known as Notes Live, and its owner JW Roth.
However, the city has already affirmed the venue’s permits — including the noise hardship permit that lasts until October and allows it to exceed the city’s 50 decibel (dB) limit in residential areas. Further testing has affirmed compliance, officials said.
“Nevertheless, we all recognize the need to try alternative mitigation strategies to address noise,” city officials and Venu said in a joint statement after the Aug. 27 city council meeting. “Today we identified short and long-term strategies that aim to reduce unintentional impact on our community. We ask for the community’s patience and grace as additional research is conducted and these actions are developed and applied.”
Those strategies include canceling all fireworks — minus possibly Independence Day — increasing its “sound wall” depth, and conducting further third-party studies. A lot is at stake, all agreed. However, Venu owner Roth has suggested that the resistance is overblown.
“I am in no way dismissive of people’s concerns,” Roth told The Denver Post last month. “But when we made the decision to build this and started the process with the city, 50 or so residents hated the idea of it being there. So I’m guessing those same 50 people put the opening date on their calendar and circled it so they could call in and complain about the noise.”
Ford Amphitheater works in partnership with AEG Presents, which brings in top-name acts just before and after they’ve played other major venues, such as Red Rocks Amphitheatre. As the region’s dominant booker, AEG Presents and Ford have a stake in making the venue’s money back (terms of the naming rights deal from Colorado Ford dealerships have not been disclosed).
AEG Presents operates and books the 8,000-seat amphitheater, while Venu controls the property — which is slated to soon host a whiskey bar and upscale chophouse, Roth said. AEG declined to make officials available for comment, but said in a statement that “we will be examining all options over the coming days. We are excited about our future in Colorado Springs and an ongoing, positive dialogue with the community.”
“The houses were here before the venue,” said McLaughlin of Sun Hill Homeowners Association. “But we’re in unincorporated Colorado Springs so we don’t get to vote in city elections. It’s up to us to show this is hurting families.”
“We don’t want to shut the thing down,” he added. “We know it has a huge benefit to everybody, and I would even love to go see some of the bands. But I can’t in good conscience support it until they fix this.”
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