Ford Amphitheater noise complaints continue amid open house

Ford Amphitheater in Colorado Springs is hosting an open house this weekend amid efforts to appease a group of angry residents who say the venue creates excessive noise pollution and hurts home values.

The Saturday, Oct. 5, open house will allow the public to tour the venue from the inside for the first time. It begins at 3:45 p.m., but attendees were required to submit any questions by Sept. 26, and must RSVP to the open house at showclix.com/event/neighborhoodopenhouse105.

“Whether you’re curious about the development process, have feedback to share, or simply want to get an inside look at the Ford Amphitheater, this event is your chance to engage directly with us,” according to a statement.

However, new questions posed at the event will not be answered, according to Venu, which owns the amphitheater. Venu and its founder-CEO, JW Roth, have faced vocal opposition to Ford since it opened in August, leading to more than 600 noise complaints in the first two weeks of operation. The $90 million venue sits just east of Interstate 25 and the Air Force Academy, north of Colorado Springs.

Roth believes the venue will increase property values and become a widely loved addition to the city. He has told The Denver Post that most responses he’s heard have been positive, including from nearby residents.

That contradicts the opinions of people such as Murray Relf, who’s one of those continuing to lead the charge against the amphitheater. He and others have spoken against Ford at city council meetings and online, even as a study commissioned by Ford’s owner shows the 8,000-seat venue is within its noise-level permit, while others have come out in support of the project.

Relf and other residents have watched their lawsuit against the venue get dismissed twice on the grounds that it was filed too early — before the venue opened. A Sept. 12 judgment from El Paso County’s Court of Appeals stated that in some cases neighbors tried to argue their points using examples that had not even happened yet.

That hasn’t stopped Relf from staying vocal. This week he sent an email to city officials that showed a small pile of trash on Voyager Parkway at the junction with Spectrum Loop, and complained of a disused barricade at the intersection. He called it “the last straw” and “a blight zone.”

The venue is on a larger, still-developing complex at 95 Spectrum Loop in Colorado Springs. Relf said an unnamed realtor told him his home may take a “5 to 25% reduction in value from the theater.”

“No one’s going to want to live within 3-4 miles of the theater,” Relf wrote to The Denver Post. “The mayor is impossible to talk with — he never comes to the council meetings — and if you write him you get a cookie-cutter, useless response.”

Some residents are also disputing the temporary hardship permit that Ford Amphitheater obtained that allows it to exceed the city’s usual decibel limits. Relf and about 10 other neighborhood residents did so at a “tense” Sept. 12 city council meeting where more than 50 people spoke, most of them in favor of the venue, the Colorado Springs Gazette reported.

Colorado Springs’ mayor can approve hardship permits “for certain events or activities that would allow those activities to produce excessive noise for specific periods of time,” according to the city’s website.

Venu has agreed to more testing, higher sound walls, earlier ending times and other efforts. Roth said most of the noise comes from the venue’s north side, the Gazette reported, and that he’s considering ending concerts earlier on Sundays in the 2025 season. The current season wraps up Oct. 17 with a show from Godsmack.

The venue is getting high marks from an accessibility expert who says its thoughtful layout is a rare and welcome addition to the concert scene.

“I can tell you there is not a bad ADA seat in every level as I personally have enjoyed them all, including a fire pit suite!” wrote Jim Vacik, who is quadriplegic and was a complainant in an ADA-compliance lawsuit against Red Rocks Amphitheatre in 2016. He said Ford is one of the most disability-friendly venues in Colorado, if not the nation.

“In addition to seating and parking, they have ADA features like an adult changing table and even a place for service dogs to relieve themselves,” wrote Vacik, also a board member at The Independence Center, which advocates for civil rights for disabled people. “As part of operations, their team got training on accommodating disabled persons from the Colorado Independence Center staff and they have an ADA  assistance stand at the gate with the VIP suite ticketing to assist concertgoers upon arrival.”

Still, residents such as Jeremy Griess — a neighbor of Relf’s — are requesting that the city require any potential future hardship permit for Ford to be contingent on Venu complying with state law.

Colorado’s residential noise law allows properties to reach a noise limit of 50-55 decibels between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., but limits are as high as 80 decibels for industrial operations. Some residents who complained about the venue in late August commissioned the study that showed sound closer to 80 decibels for up to three hours during shows.