THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 26, 1995 TAG: 9503240172
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM HOLDEN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines
When William ``Bud'' Thom thinks about the proposed Virginia Beach amphitheater, his thoughts are not of a Mozart violin concerto drifting brightly over the warm summer air.
Instead, the vice president of the Salem Lakes Civic League worries that the sounds will be blistering rock guitars and an angry punker bellowing into a microphone with enough traffic on neighborhood roads to daunt even Los Angeles residents.
After a meeting Wednesday night at Landstown Elementary School, in which city officials and their project partner, Cellar Door Productions of Virginia Beach, sought to dispel resident concerns, Thom remained unconvinced.
``I'm not against it, but I do have concerns that I think need to be addressed,'' said Thom.
Chief among those worries is noise and what affect it will have on the somewhat sleepy suburban tract known as Salem Lakes, an enclave of fairly new homes separated from the proposed site by a thicket of trees.
To that end, Thom said he wants the city to conduct a thorough sound study of how a concert venue with 12,500 reserved seats and room for many thousands more on a grassy lawn would affect his neighborhood.
Whether the city will agree to further sound studies remains uncertain. The project, envisioned as an important element to the city's $500 million tourism industry, is scheduled for a vote by City Council on Tuesday.
While it remains on a fast track - surveying and soil studies are nearly complete and funding for the $12 million project is in hand - the city agrees that residents' concerns are understandable and easily put to rest.
Dana D. Barclay, a systems/management analyst and an expert in sound hired by the city, said controlling unwanted noise from the proposed amphitheater is no mystery.
``The way a facility like this is designed is not witchcraft but in knowing that the physical characteristics of sound can be controlled,'' he said. ``Sound follows the laws of physics, regardless of its intensity. Those laws are predictable in what they can and cannot do.
``Based on this, the designers of this facility can make adjustments on not only landscaping, but how the amphitheater itself is built, what properties to build into the stage, the roof, and to accurately predict what kind of attenuation of sound there will be.
``Consequently, it's not a roll of the dice as to what the sound is going to be like.''
By law, he said, the sound level cannot exceed 60 decibels, which is the approximate level of sound of normal indoor speech at three feet. Regardless of whether the band is Anthrax, Counting Crows or the Virginia Symphony, the city's conditional use permit requires that the sound level outside the amphitheater not exceed 60 decibels at adjacent property lines, he said.
Apart from architectural and landscaping details, the ability to control sound will reside with the people who sit at the amphitheater's mixing board.
``It's up to those individuals running the concert to assure the concert is up to the guidelines. That's why there is a conditional use permit.''
But anxieties persist.
Dennis J. Borgerding, president of Salem Lakes Civic League and a Navy employee whose specialty is detecting submarines based on the noise they make, questioned whether low frequency noise won't penetrate the woods and flow into the neighborhoods.
``Those trees that are behind the stage will have little effect on the low frequency noise,'' Borgerding said. ``And the studies I have read show that once the sound gets past the berm of the amphitheater it becomes omni-directional, meaning it goes everywhere.''
Like many residents, Borgerding is not against the project outright, but with so much at stake and so many lingering questions he wants assurances that his quality of life will not be affected.
``We're not saying we're against it but we have property rights that we would like protected.''
Jim Johnson, a Salem Lakes resident, sees plans for an amphitheater, and sees only one thing: a declining value for his home.
``I believe this will drive down the property value of my home to the point that I will lose money on it if I sell.''
Shawn O'Toole, another resident of Salem Lakes and a systems analyst, again raised the noise question with a question of his own.
``If my neighbor is having a loud party, I can call the police. But who do I call if there is a concert under way?'' by CNB