The April 27-28 noise survey conducted by the City showed the two-day “Welcome to Rockville” music festival at Metropolitan Park had little measurable impact on noise levels in surrounding neighborhoods.
Survey results were presented Thursday to the City Council Ad Hoc Committee on Metropolitan Park.
The verdict showed the festival had little measurable impact on noise levels in surrounding neighborhoods, including residential areas across the St. Johns River south of Metropolitan Park.
Steve Pace, senior environmental engineer manager in the City Environmental Quality Division, explained how the survey was conducted and presented the results to the committee.
He said nine neighborhood monitoring sites were chosen: six on the Southbank, one along East Bay Street near The Plaza at Berkman, one at 737 A. Philip Randolph Blvd. in Springfield and one at 1817 E. Beaver St. near the Mathews Bridge.
Measurements also were made at three locations inside Metropolitan Park to assess the relative sound levels at the neighborhood monitoring sites compared to the sound level in the park.
Readings were recorded every 20 minutes both days during the hours was festival was open.
Pace prefaced his presentation by explaining the standards used for the survey and the role of the division in enforcing the City’s regulations concerning nuisance noise.
“The Environmental Quality Division is a regulatory agency, not an engineering firm. This is not a study, it’s a survey,” he said.
City Environmental Protection Board Rule 4 limits noise levels in residential land uses to 60 dBA in the daytime and 55 dBA at night, which is defined in the regulation as 10 p.m.-7 a.m.
City Council enacted legislation to exempt the festival and Funk Fest, scheduled Friday and Saturday at Metropolitan Park, from complying with City noise regulations for the purpose of the survey.
Pace said ambient noise level measurements were conducted at each site before the festival. Background noise at the sites ranged from 44 dBA-56 dBA from sources such as car and truck traffic, birds and frogs.
According to the survey, noise levels from the festival measured offsite would briefly have violated the noise-control ordinance at three monitoring sites during seven recording periods the first day of the festival and none at all the second day of the festival.
Pace attributed the results to light winds both days of the festival and to the festival promoter agreeing to reposition the stages to direct sound away from the Southbank neighborhoods.
“We had excellent cooperation from the promoter,” Pace said.
Mike Yokan, attorney for the festival producer, said changing the stage layout for the festival increased the production cost by $12,000, but it ensured the festival had minimal impact on the area outside the park.
“It had a tremendous positive effect,” he said.
Yokan presented some of the data from the business side of the two-day event.
He said more than 25,000 people went through the turnstiles for the festival with some coming from as far away as Europe and Japan.
Empty hotel rooms were scarce Downtown and the Wyndham Jacksonville Riverwalk on the Southbank overbooked, with guests with reservations being accommodated at the Omni, he said.
Yokan said the promoter wrote a check for $55,000 to the local stagehands union and another for $25,000 to the caterer who fed the entertainers.
He estimated the revenue from parking to be as much as $100,000 for SMG and the City.
“We’re thrilled. We want to do it again,” Yokan said.
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