SnowGlobe working to curtail unwanted noise
By Kathryn Reed
It may be impossible to ever completely satisfy those who are against SnowGlobe.
Even though the promoter of the three-day music festival has agreed to shorten the hours, eliminate a day of sound checks, cover the entire ball field with a protective material, use an independent sound engineer and other concessions, opponents want more.
“Most of our issues are not with SnowGlobe; they are with policy and planning,” Scott Ramirez told the South Lake Tahoe City Council.
The 2018 SnowGlobe contract includes:
• Vendors/sponsors will agree to preapproved tent/structure specifications. Non-compliance will result in a fine of $1,000 per violation.
• Seven (instead of six) California Highway Patrol officers will be used to patrol Al Tahoe Boulevard.
• A site plan for Bijou Community Park must be submitted, including citing activities for that site; as well as listing location for off-site box office.
• Putting in writing the fire department can cancel the fireworks.
• The field, pending weather, will be ready for use by June 1.
• Music will end at 10pm on Dec. 29 and Dec. 30, and at 12:45am Jan. 1.
• Speakers and subwoofers will be placed according to a sound engineer so as to create the least disturbance for residential areas.
• Sound checks will start after 11am on festival days, and will be from 11am-8pm on Dec. 28.
• South Lake Tahoe Drug Coalition will receive a free booth.
• Removing snow before the entire field is covered with a product that is the same material the San Francisco Giants and 49ers use.
• Per the existing contract the city is paying up to $35,000 for promotional materials, and $15,000 for transportation and garbage. Another $75,000 is provided in kind services/labor. SnowGlobe will put up at $250,000 bond in case the field needs replacing/repairs.
He is part of the No Globe Alliance. This is a group of South Lake Tahoe residents who are fed up with the bass that has rocked their homes since the festival started in 2011. While they contend they don’t want to shut down the festival, they want more. They want enforcement. They want fines. They want their concerns to be heard as loudly as the noise they complain about.
The problem is there are no guarantees that what will be implemented for this December’s event will do enough to satisfy those who are upset.
Nonetheless, the three-day festival that features electronic dance music will be back this year.
Chad Donnelly, the promoter of SnowGlobe, has a lot riding on his plans to mitigate the sound disturbance. He wants a long-term contract with the city and this is the last year of the existing deal. The number of complaints and what the field looks like will be key factors the council will consider in the future.
While noise has been an issue since the first year, every year seems to have come with some other negative component – a death, remnants of the festival left for months because of snow, and a field needing to be replaced. The latter is being taken care of now so it will be ready to be used in the summer.
And while the naysayers are a vocal ensemble each time SnowGlobe is on a council agenda, as was the case last week, there is an equally passionate group that supports the festival. Those people see it from the economic point-of-view.
It’s no longer a given that South Shore hotels will be full on New Year’s Eve. The lack of snow is a constant worry. Plus, SnowGlobe brings guests who usually stay a minimum of three nights because most of the nearly 20,000 attendees attend each night.
At last week’s meeting the council, with member Brooke Laine absent, agreed to tighten a few rules that staff recommended. Also incorporated into the amended agreement were aspects of the deal worked out between the promoter and “no globers.”
I would love to see someone in the press do a little homework of existing regulations and explain why the City and the TRPA continue to ignore the Bijou/Al Tahoe Community Plan while also adopting a new Community Plan for Meyers and using the Tahoe Valley Community Plan to block local businesses. There is a clear requirement for the City to follow the Bijou/Al Tahoe Community Plan which includes Noise regulations but the City refuse to follow it and the TRPA appears to be ignoring it as well. Both parties should do their part and revise these plans for events like this rather than pretend they do not exist. I don’t get to pretend my BMPs don’t exist, why should the City be allowed to pretend their rules don’t exist? I guess the City remains the exception from existing laws while the rest of us must follow them.
To be fair, SnowGlobe has made many concessions and are doing their part. Unlike the City, the SnowGlobe organization continues to work the problem and seek solutions. My own view is that SnowGlobe should be given the opportunity to show they can fix the noise problem. The City and the TRPA should likewise, do their part and correct the Bijou/AL Tahoe Community Plan to accommodate the need for real noise regulations rather than ignore them. We have an opportunity with the 2018 SnowGlobe event to not just resolve existing issue but establish rules that could be used for future events. Unfortunately, only SnowGlobe and local residents seems to be looking at it this way. Leadership from our City and the TRPA is conspicuosly absent. While SnowGlobe considers hiring a Sound Engineer and making real change, the City has walked away and effectively left it to SnowGlobe to shut up local opposition. The City claims to want this event but have taken the role of silent ignorance rather than active leadership.
At our recent City Council meeting, one City Council member asked why the City was being pointed at as “the enemy”. What this Council member failed to recognize is that the City Council elected to hold this event without any noise limits and the established limits were created in 2012 and are little changed. The City has chosen it’s own role in all of this through inaction as they have with VHRs. In both cases, only when residents were in an uproar did anyone take action. To be clear, SnowGlobe is running a business and has been under no obligation to make any change. SnowGlobe has shown leadership to solve these problems while the City has largely sat back and washed their hands of the issues. I congratulate SnowGlobe in their handling of these issues. Maybe the City Council can learn from their leadership.
I must add, SnowGlobe has continued to reach out the our group and continues to seek solutions to not just remedy the sound issue but to establish new standards for future years. I know they do so out of self interest but their actions speak volumes to their character. I can only hope that they are successful in resolving the issues. Despite much rhetoric against us from our nay sayers, the No Globe Alliance has been sincerely in seeking solutions. We have sought other venues, we have researched sound dampening solutions, we have offered appropriate policy suggestions, we have done our part and been arguably successful considering the changes that SnowGlobe has largely volunteered to make. Both SnowGlobe and the No Globe Alliance should be congratulated on getting as far as we have. Too bad the City and TRPA have not done their part and corrected the existing regulatory issues. Hopefully those existing regulations will not return to haunt the City for having ignore them.
Looking forward to the 2018 SnowGlobe event. It may be the first of many more or the last of the series. Fingers crossed for a good result for all parties. Fingers crossed that all parties are successful in finding the middle ground.
Sincerely,
Scott Ramirez