The 8,000-seat open-air Sunset Amphitheater that’s under construction in northern Colorado Springs has cleared a legal challenge brought by neighborhood opponents and is on track to open in the summer — and plans to announce its initial lineup of concerts in 10 days.

An El Paso County judge Wednesday threw out a homeowners lawsuit that sought to block construction and operation of the venue, which alleged concert noise would violate the state’s noise pollution law, create a nuisance for nearby residents, and hurt their property values.

The lawsuit, filed in September in the 4th Judicial District, had named the city of Colorado Springs and local entertainment company Notes Live as defendants.

The Colorado Springs City Council in January 2023 overwhelmingly approved the amphitheater, which broke ground six months later at the Polaris Pointe mixed-use development southeast of Intestate 25 and North Gate Boulevard.

Notes Live, the project’s developer, had proposed the venue as a world-class facility that will play host to the entertainment world’s biggest names.

The Sunset now is scheduled to open in July with an initial series of concerts featuring “mid-sized shows,” J.W. Roth, founder and CEO of Notes Live, said Thursday. Those first few weeks will allow the company and its vendors to test the venue’s ticketing and operational systems, he said.

A grand opening for the venue will follow Aug. 9-10, which will launch a lineup of big-name acts for the rest of the season, Roth said. A list of concerts will be revealed Jan. 22, when tickets will go on sale for all or most shows.

“The biggest names touring Colorado next year will be playing the Sunset,” Roth said. “I mean, it’s the monsters. We couldn’t be more thrilled. … If you’re a music nut, our schedule for 2024 will be on your bucket list, I can tell you that.”

The amphitheater project was opposed by some residents in nearby neighborhoods who said they feared it would create parking and traffic woes in addition to sending unwanted noise into homes and backyards on concert nights.

Those concerns led to a lawsuit filed by a Colorado Springs homeowner and a newly formed homeowners group; among other allegations, their complaint said sound from the amphitheater would violate the state’s Noise Pollution Law, that the city ignored that noise statute when it OK’d the project, and that the city doesn’t have authority under state law to issue permits for the venue.

In dismissing that suit, however, Judge David Shakes sided with the city and Notes Live on several points, including:

• The City Council and City Planning Commission had the legal right under state law to approve the amphitheater’s development plan, which spelled out project details such as location, access and parking.

• The city, as a home-rule municipality, can adopt ordinances that supersede conflicting state statutes, maintains authority to regulate concert noise, and isn’t bound by the state’s noise law.

• Homeowners can’t challenge the amphitheater merely on the possibility that its concerts might produce unacceptable noise levels.

• The homeowners failed to file their suit within a required 28-day window after the City Council OK’d the project in January 2023.

Ian Speir, a Colorado Springs attorney representing homeowner Michael Kuhn and the Northside Neighbors Association in their suit, said Thursday he was disappointed in the judge’s dismissal.

He and his clients will consider an appeal, which must be filed no later than 49 days after Wednesday’s ruling. If they appeal, it likely would be filed long before the deadline, Speir said.

A central point in the case, Speir said, is a difference of opinion over whether the state’s Noise Pollution Law gives Colorado Springs the authority to grant permits for the operation of for-profit venues such as the Sunset Amphitheater.

Speir contends the law bars the city from issuing such permits; in motions they had filed seeking to dismiss the suit, Notes Live and the Colorado Springs City Attorney’s Office argued the opposite.

In response to the judge’s ruling, Colorado Springs spokeswoman Vanessa Zink said Thursday that city officials were pleased the court dismissed the suit. They declined to comment on specifics of the case because of the chance it will be appealed, she said.

Tobin Kern, a Littleton attorney representing Notes Live, said the company and its representatives spent more than a year working with the city to ensure that noise, traffic and parking issues were addressed.

“We worked with the Planning Commission and the City Council and went over all these issues in detail,” Kern said. “The plaintiffs were trying to throw out that year’s worth of work, and we’re glad that the judge disagreed. We’re going to be good neighbors, and the amphitheater is going to be a huge benefit to the community.”

Roth said he was excited about the court victory, but didn’t want to “spike the football.”

The court’s decision was a win not just for Notes Live, but the project’s “thousands” of community supporters and stakeholders, many of whom live in nearby neighborhoods, Roth said. Notes Live and the Sunset Amphitheater, he added, have been and will continue to be good neighbors with surrounding residents.

The Sunset Amphitheater will rival Red Rocks and Fiddler’s Green near Denver and give Colorado Springs-area residents the opportunity to enjoy concerts and the biggest names in entertainment without driving an hour north to see them, Roth has said. Notes Live also has estimated the venue will pump $1 billion into the local economy over its first 10 years.

Concerts will play out against a scenic mountain backdrop, while the venue will boast VIP seating and fire-pit suites — amenities that will help make the Sunset the “most luxurious amphitheater ever built in history,” Roth has claimed.

The venue’s final price tag that includes construction and land purchases, Roth said, is $62.5 million; a separate, $35 million restaurant, bar and event center complex will be built on the east side of the amphitheater campus. The restaurant and event center building will help serve as a noise barrier and is one of several noise mitigation measures in place at the venue, he said.

A rendering shows an image of the planned Sunset Amphitheater that’s under construction in northern Colorado Springs. A September lawsuit that alleged the 8,000-seat, outdoor venue would violate a state noise law was dismissed Wednesday by an El Paso County judge, and the project’s developer now says tickets will go on sale Jan. 22 for the venue’s first shows next summer.

COURTESY of NOTES LIVE