Cary residents who live near Koka Booth Amphitheatre should invest in some industrial strength ear plugs. The town council voted 7-2 to ignore concerns about the noise level at concerts and increase how loud the music can be blasted into the surrounding neighborhood. Why? Because bands like REO Sppedwagon and Cheap Trick complained. This is a blatant anti-property rights decision. Evidently the mayor and council believe in “quality of life” in general, but not when it involved specific residents.
Weinbrecht expected negative feedback from some residents. He pledged to “do the best we can to limit the impact to their quality of life.”
Councilwoman Julie Robison said Cary has worked hard to strike a compromise between residents and concertgoers, pointing to rules that require weekend concerts to end no later than 11 p.m. and weeknight events to end by 10 p.m. . “We need to look at this from a cost-benefit perspective,” she said. “And I hate to see acts turning us down.”
