I was quoted in your June 18 article "Residents conflicted over concert noise". At the Town Center meeting on June 11, I said that the noise levels at Merriweather Post Pavilion (MPP) seem to have increased over the last several years. I wondered why, so I am asking questions about who's responsible for MPP's operation and for monitoring the sound levels. What can residents do when contracts and laws are violated?
Your June 18 editorial ("Monitor loudness, but otherwise leave Merriweather Post alone") suggests I should move out of Columbia if performances at MPP are too loud, since it may not be my "cup of suburbia".
I am not moving and I do not want to get rid of Merriweather. I want it to be a better neighbor. As your editorial states, "laws are laws." I would like them to be enforced when violations do occur. You believe that the contracts with performers "are made in good faith" and that if violations occur, county health officials should "level punitive charges." I agree. So how will the punitive charges you suggest benefit the communities surrounding the Pavilion?
Who monitors MPP sound levels? Is the equipment they use up to the task? Where do they monitor? Who enforces the laws? Who do we call when the laws and contracts are violated?
Who actually controls the operation of Merriweather Post Pavilion and Symphony Woods? My assumption was that the Columbia Association owns them both, but apparently that may not be true. What does the Howard Hughes Corporation control and what does the Inner Arbor Corporation control?
Did CA grant a perpetual easement to either or both of these companies? Does that easement allow secondary stages to be set up in Symphony Woods? If additional stages are set up for concerts, wouldn't they bypass the original sound engineering design of MPP and increase sound levels in surrounding neighborhoods?
Why did the Howard County delegation originate a bill (HB1514) in the 2013 Maryland legislative session that allows higher decibel levels than the previous law? Who gained from increasing allowable sounds levels?
Leave Merriweather Post alone? I think not. Why? Because It is, as you say, an integral part of life in Columbia and long may it remain so. Residents, CA, Howard Hughes Corporation, Inner Arbor Corporation, promoters and performers need to work together to make MPP a pleasant neighbor — without name calling, without emotional outbursts and with civility.
Rob Lance
Columbia