Opinion: No Globe Alliance appreciates efforts to minimize noise impacts

The annual SnowGlobe Music Festival is fast approaching and local residents should plan accordingly. There are changes in the noise requirements and the sound will be shut off at 10:00 p.m. the first two nights and will be required to meet the averaged noise limits defined in the Bijou/Al Tahoe Community Plan for the hours after 10:00 p.m. on the final night. These changes are a direct result of local residents speaking out to the three government agencies who created the pre-existing requirements that have long been ignored: The City of South Lake Tahoe, the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) and El Dorado County. These same groups should be thanked for beginning to honor their own rules after nearly a decade. Hopefully these changes and the new requirement to identify a new venue over the next two years will resolve long standing issues this event has created for local residents. Now that the Wildlife Center is open, we have added incentive to change the venue location

The City, the TRPA and SnowGlobe have actively worked to resolve many of these issues and to work as partners in addressing some of the complaints. Chad Donnelly has pushed his team to include sound monitoring and continues to experiment with stage layouts. The City has provided online reporting and monitoring tools. The City has also modified the contract to require SnowGlobe identify a new location within two years. The TRPA has accepted that their own rules do exist and are requiring some of the rules be enforced after 10:00 p.m. El Dorado County, unfortunately, continues to ignore complaints and has so far said nothing about the impact to residents in the unincorporated areas adjacent to the venue. How these changes will be measured and enforced and if a new location will actually be identified and used remains to be seen but improvements have been made.

The No Globe Alliance is thankful for these changes. We also remain watchful for the promised follow through and enforcement of these changes. We are encouraging every resident to once more measure the sound at their location. If you feel the sound violates the established rules, please report: the measured decibel reading, your location and the time to the appropriate parties. We recommend using the CDC NIOSH Sound Level App to monitor the sound. Please report your street address and the time. We will post links to the telephone numbers, web sites and other reporting information on the No Globe Alliance Facebook Page as they become available. Please join our Facebook group and share your experience. Hopefully, the event is moving to a sustainable level and will be relocated to an appropriate venue in the coming years.

Happy Holidays!
-Scott Ramirez in behalf of the No Globe Alliance