City Hall

Jacksonville, FL.32202

March 6, 1998

Dear Mayor Delaney:

I want to thank you for your efforts last Thursday in extending the olive branch to those CAA representatives (including myself) who met with you in your office. We have discussed your proposal at length with the Steering Committee of the CAA Advisory Board. Please consider this our response to your verbal proposal, as it was presented to us on February 26.

The major points of your "compromise," as discussed on Feb.26, have not changed substantially from the City's original proposal. It is a slightly scaled-down version of the same project you have discussed from the beginning.

1. Your proposal to limit the number of covered seats to 3,500 would not effect our ongoing concerns: Metropolitan Park remaining a public park, the number of concerts per year and the effect and frequency of noise pollution from those concerts. It is unrealistic to expect to limit the overall capacity of the venue. Past Jazz Festivals have seen close to 20,000 attendees spread throughout the grass berm.

2. We expect the City to limit the number of fee-paid events to no more than ten nights, plus the six Symphony "Starry Nights" events, plus the Jazz Festival. Your proposal to limit the total fee-paid concerts to "20-25" plus the Jazz Festival and Symphony Starry Nights is the same number the City has been using in the Economic Feasibility Study. Public access would be reduced and a large segment of the population would lose access to the park due to the increase in ticket prices. We feel strongly that this regional park should remain a free and open park and fee-paid event nights should remain at the present level, as agreed to in 1989 by the City, the State and the National Park Service.

3. Your proposal suggested that the City of Jacksonville, rather than Cellar Door, would be the management entity for the amphitheater. We do not feel that the City of Jacksonville could operate a venue and book 20-25 or more concerts per year without outside management expertise. SMG was brought in to professionally operate all of the City's concert venues years ago. If the City tried to operate the amphitheater for a time and found, as most cities have, that it needed to turn operations over to a private management group such as SMG, the decision would rest with City Council and would be totally out of citizens control, at that point. If the number of concerts remains at the present level, an outside promoter will not be needed and the control of noise and types of acts will remain the responsibility of the City.

4. Our research shows enforcing a decibel level on music groups has not worked and it is not easily enforced. Although most amphitheaters have limited decibel levels, we have not found any amphitheater in the country where this has worked.

5. Your proposal to involve CAA in the ongoing monitoring of the amphitheater is commendable, but we feel, impractical. The responsibility for monitoring this type of venue should rest squarely with the City administration and City Council, not with a promoter/manager or a citizens group. A citizens group such as CAA would inherit the token responsibility for seeing that the City kept its promises but they would have no authority, therefore no power, to implement their monitoring responsibility. CAA could find itself in the untenable position of challenging the City on issues related to ongoing amphitheater monitoring and, at the same time, be soundly criticized by citizens at large for not being effective.

We would encourage you to take a creative change in direction at this point. Citizens' concerns over this facility has been extensive, therefore, it must have meaning to them. Citizens would applaud your committing to a first class renovation of the existing Metropolitan Park pavilion and riverfront, including the proposed Kids Kampus. Put a new roof on the pavilion, upgrade the equipment, increase bathrooms, build the riverwalk, repair the bulkhead and keep the park a free and open park. Use this broad green space as the western anchor for the future development of first class housing, hotels, etc. that could change the direction of Jacksonville's image for decades to come. Let's keep Metropolitan Park free and open for all people, rich and poor, to enjoy.

While we are honored that you would place part of the responsibility of a decision regarding the future of Metropolitan Park in the hands of Citizens for Amphitheater Awareness, we feel that it would be inappropriate and presumptuous of our group to negotiate any agreement on behalf of Jacksonville citizens. The community at large should decide the future of Met Park and whether a new amphitheater should be built. For that reason, we are starting a public campaign to place this issue on the ballot for the November election. If enough citizens feel the project will benefit the community, then it will be built.

We appreciate your efforts to resolve this issue. We, too, are anxious for an amicable conclusion to the controversy. We know you are keeping in mind your original five promises to the community. We also feel confident that, as the honorable man you are, you will come to the right decision that is best for Jacksonville. We eagerly await that decision.

Sincerely.

Jan Miller, President

Citizens for Amphitheater Awareness