AMP Requests Two-year Extension At Fairgrounds

Concertgoers could continue to attend shows at the Washington County Fairgrounds if the Fayetteville Planning Commission approves a request for a two-year extension from the Arkansas Music Pavilion.

Meeting Information

Fayetteville Planning Commission

When: 5:30 p.m. Feb. 11

Where: City Administration Building, 113 W. Mountain St.

The commission reviewed an application Monday for the pavilion but tabled the issue for two weeks in hopes to have public input, including comments about noise. No one from the public was at this week’s meeting to speak on the extension.

“We welcome everybody to come and comment, hopefully the good with the bad,” said Tommy Sisemore, security coordinator.

The pavilion, owned by the Walton Arts Center, will also remain without a tent until owners find a permanent place, Sisemore said. Strong winds damaged the structure beyond repair in July.

“We want to commit to being at the fairgrounds through 2014, and then we’re hoping to have a permanent location,” Sisemore said.

The pavilion moved to the fairgrounds early last year from its first home at the parking lot of the Northwest Arkansas Mall. A new management team at the mall and the Walton Art Center staff could not reach an agreement to keep the venue at the lot.

Last year’s concert season yielded complaints on 10 days, said Jesse Fulcher, a city planner. Most of those complaints to the police department came from residents living across Interstate 540, he said.

An apartment complex sits to the north of the fairgrounds and the University of Arkansas owns land to the east and south of the locations. The interstate is directly west of the fairgrounds.

“Looking at the police reports I have here, it didn’t appear the AMP was violating the noise ordinance or the allowances they were given for concert performances,” Fulcher said.

Noise levels cannot exceed 60 decibels in residential areas from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., according to the city’s ordinance.

“We hire Fayetteville police officers for every event that goes on at the venue,” Sisemore said. “They take decimal readings hourly at all our property lines to make sure we’re in compliance.”

Officers also go to the location of the complaint to test the noise level, he said.

The two-year extension application comes with the same conditions placed by city planners to pavilion managers for concert operations.

Those conditions include a maximum of 20 music events per year that would not go beyond midnight.

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