From the Denver Post, Sept 16 2016

by Jon Murray

City’s issuance of $24,000 in fines since 2015 comes after years of little enforcement

Denver city officials stepped up enforcement of the city’s noise ordinance in a big way after boisterous rock festivals rattled nearby windows and spurred a flood of complaints two years ago.

Near City Park and some other popular festival and concert sites, neighbors felt under siege. For years, the city had done little to police noise levels for events, particularly on weekends.

“I couldn’t hear myself think in my own house,” recalled Bonita Lahey, who lives a block south of City Park.

After tempers flared in the summer of 2014 — following the one-time Chive Fest at City Park and Riot Fest in the Sports Authority Field at Mile High parking lot, near Jefferson Park — the city hired a noise investigator the next year to monitor special events proactively on weekends. That has resulted in the issuance of nearly $24,000 in fines to event organizers of large events since early last year, records show.

Lahey is among neighborhood advocates who say they have noticed improvement near the city’s most popular parks.

“Particularly last year, I don’t remember hearing anybody,” she said about City Park. “And this year, there may have been two times. … I just think the city is doing a really great job.”

Some organizers of events and festivals say the fines got their attention. The Colfax Marathon, which broadcasts announcements to runners lining up in City Park before the main event’s 6 a.m. start, responded to a $250 fine by reorienting speakers and coordinating with the announcer to keep early-morning noise levels down this year.

Others who stage events in the middle of populated neighborhoods, though, are resigned to paying what they view as unavoidable fines — essentially making them an extra cost of doing business.

Last year, noise monitors levied 30 fines on 21 festivals and events between May and October, according to the city’s Department of Environmental Health. Fines from $250 to the maximum $999 per day totaled $16,490. Fined events ranged from the Highlands Street Fair and the Cole Community Block Party to all three days of August’s Riot Fest — which moved to the National Western Complex last year — and five of six days of September’s Denver Oktoberfest, which occupied Larimer Street north of 20th Street.

FULL ARTICLE IN DENVER POST HERE