A year of amphitheater talks ends in impasse Posted 10/5/01 by John Gessner Staff Writer A year of mediation between foes of the Black Dog Amphitheater, the developer and the city of Burnsville have ended in stalemate. Talks ended at a Sept. 27 session at Burnsville City Hall, when citizen amphitheater foes sought to impose demands on the project unacceptable to amphitheater developer Rose Wild LLC. The dispute over the 19,500-seat amphitheater, which the Burnsville City Council approved last year, now goes to a five-member Metropolitan Council committee. The committee will make a recommendation on whether the project has ìsignificant regional impact.î The full council will decide whether the project has ìmetropolitan significanceî and whether to suspend it for up to a year. The mediation was part of a metropolitan-significance review sought by amphitheater foes in Burnsville and Bloomington. Also pending are lawsuits to block or delay the project. The lawsuits, brought by anti-amphitheater groups Citizens Alliance for Responsible Ecology and the Bloomington Amphitheater Coalition, as well as the city of Bloomington, were put on hold during mediation. ìItís too early to say, but my assumption at this point would be that whatever differences we have will be decided in the courts,î said Joe Artmann of Burnsville-based CARE. An impasse in the mediation was declared by Metropolitan Council Member Roger Williams, who brokered talks between the two sides. ìYou canít mediate with somebody who doesnít want (the project) to happen,î said Rand Levy of concert promoter Rose Presents, which is teaming with the Minnesota Wild hockey team to build the concert venue on the McGowan property west of I-35W and south of the Minnesota River. Levy said that conditions foes sought to impose on the amphitheater included cutting the seating capacity in half, not allowing wine and beer sales, ending shows at 10 p.m. even though City Council-approved rules donít allow them to begin before 8 p.m., and holding the decibel level in nearby neighborhoods to ìless than what it currently is without an amphitheater.î ìIt would have been nice if we could have mediated a solution and gotten to building the project,î Levy said. ìNow we have a different set of roadblocks, but theyíre roadblocks where the facts of law will determine the outcome, not the whim of the naive.î Artmann said Rose Wildís refusal to negotiate opponentsí proposals were to blame for the impasse. In announcing the mediation, last year, the Metropolitan Council said it would focus solely on potential noise impacts in Bloomington, whose blufftop residents are driving the opposition in that city. But the talks were wide-ranging, including opponentsí request to screen objectionable concert acts, pre-approve light shows and special effects and prohibit profanity from being used onstage. The mediation included a sound study conducted by a trio of acoustical consultants ó one aligned with the developer, one with the city of Bloomington and a third appointed by the Metropolitan Council. The study concluded that the amphitheater would have ìminimalî noise impacts and that sound from the facility would ìonly rarelyî be heard by the nearest residents. Opponents didnít buy it, saying the study didnít take into account summertime weather and wind conditions. ìItís information thatís been put forward by professionals and interpreted as you see fit,î said Bloomington Mayor Gene Winstead. Burnsville City Manager Greg Konat said the sound study, which supplemented an original study done by Rose Wildís consultant, and other outcomes of the mediation strengthened the project. ìRose Wild, I think, demonstrated a willingness to try to find solutions so it could be, if that is possible, the most neighborhood-friendly amphitheater ever built,î Konat said. ìTheyíre willing to put additional resources into sound attenuation and give citizens a voice in the ongoing operation.î City officials view the amphitheater as an important component of a larger riverfront reclamation and redevelopment plan for the industrial area west of I-35W. The Metropolitan Council committee will convene a hearing process that could take 90 days to complete before making a recommendation to the full council. ©Thisweek Newspapers