The past few summers in Denver have seen mass influx of special events in the city’s parks. Even though the city imposed a cap on special events, allowing nothing new in 2015, the complaints have kept rolling in from residents, especially near City Park, one of the more popular sites.
This year, the city’s newly formed Office of Special Events — office — is trying to tackle the issue by engaging the community, but the biggest effects may be seen a year from now.
“We have a large task in front of us this year,” said Grace Ramirez , community liaison for the Office of Special Events. “We have to educate our constituents and city agencies on how we can be helpful to them and how can we get in front of any potential issues.”
Special events in Denver nearly doubled, going from 350 to 650 between 2012 and 2014 during the event season, which typically runs from April 15 through Labor Day weekend.
Residents near City Park have complained that the noise levels during a special event frequently exceed the maximum limit of 80 decibels, yet the city has rarely enforced the infraction. The decibel level shouldn’t exceed 55 decibels during any other time.
Ramirez said the Office of Special Events’ definition of an event that would allow a louder volume is something that requires more than one city permit.
“I think what makes people angry is the city has noise ordinances based on scientific research, but they don’t enforce them,” said Bonita Lahey, president of the South City Park Neighborhood Association.
To combat the issue, Special Events is doing outreach to neighborhood groups and attempting to organize meetings with event planners and residents who are affected by a special event.
The city’s department of Environmental Health is able to hire an additional noise inspector who can work on weekends and monitor special events, which could result in more citations. The city will also get a new platform for its website in the fall that will allow for a better calendar to notify residents of when these events will take place.
“This is the beginning of the process for us,” said Katy Strascina, who runs the Office of Special Events. “The list is enormous.”
During the , many people complained that they were awoken by a person on a loudspeaker at 5:45 a.m. The Office if Special Events set up a May 28 meeting between residents and the event organizer to talk about potential improvements for next year.
Marathon organizers were cited and fined $250 for surpassing 50 decibels before 7 a.m.
At the meeting, residents noted they had no issue with the Colfax Marathon in particular, just the lack of clarity they feel they’ve received from the city on when events will be scheduled, how loud they are permitted to be and how it will be enforced.
One person said he thinks the marathon, which drew approximately 18,000 people, might be too big for City Park.
“Events like this have gotten so big, they shouldn’t be held in City Park so close to residential,” resident Woody Garnsey said.
But there is a large contingent of residents who disagree with that notion and welcome events.
“City Park is a regional park that should be used.” Five Points resident Keith Pryor said. “This is not your park — it’s the city’s park.”
Lahey noted that her neighborhood is divided on the issue, where some feel City Park should not host events and have problem with the noise, where others welcome it.
“Some people are thrilled,” Lahey said. “We’re probably split 50/50 on that.”
Joe Vaccarelli: 303-954-2396, jvaccarelli@denverpost.com or twitter.com/joe_vacc
