Planning commission gives go ahead to Gorge Amphitheatre expansion

EPHRATA - Planning commission members gave a go-ahead for The Gorge Amphitheatre to expand to a master planned resort at their hearing this week.

An annual Concert Management Agreement signed by The Gorge's owner, Live Nation, and Grant County commissioners would still decide the actual number of campers and concertgoers, Grant County Planning Commission Chairman Bill Bailey said at the meeting's end Wednesday night. The zoning change alone does not guarantee more concertgoers or concerts, he added.

The issue of whether to allow The Gorge to expand to a facility that could accommodate more campers and added retail space, a hotel and cinema is now up to Grant County commissioners.

Some neighbors who spoke at a July 2 public hearing condemning The Gorge as bad neighbors said their heavy concerns were lightened after personal reassurances by The Gorge General Manager Danny Wilde they would be kept informed during expansion talks.

Jack Bielinski, who lives in the nearby Sunland neighborhood, was adamantly against The Gorge expanding at the July 2 hearing, saying that concertgoers prevent him from getting to work on time because of lingering early morning traffic. After hearing that the venue may have to mitigate problems that occur outside of their gates, like traffic and security, if they expand to a master planned resort, he said he was more open to the idea.

He thanked Wilde for talking to neighbors and said the conversation went well and he hoped for more in the future.

Patrick Escure, nodded in agreement with Bielinski that the meeting with Wilde went well. At the July 2 hearing, Escure told commissioners he was fed up that concertgoers use the bathroom on his front lawn and block his driveway.

"This is the kind of attitude I wanted to hear going forward. Not the attitude I heard the other night," planning commission member Lee Graham said.

Both men asked whom to call if they have a problem during a concert or festival.

Live Nation representatives at the meeting said they started a hotline that neighbors can call if security or sewer issues arise. The hotline should be ready for the Arcade Fire concert on Friday night.

"The last people you want to call if there is a sewer problem is the people sitting right here," Grant County Planning Director Damien Hooper said. He added that the county and state health departments enforce sewer issues and the sheriff's office and The Gorge Security should handle traffic and security issues.

At a county commission meeting earlier in the week, commissioners tasked Public Works Director Jeff Tincher to look at prices for expanding the shoulder of the four-mile section of Silica Road that runs from I-90 East into The Gorge Amphitheatre's campground. Tincher said the shoulder expansion could add a lane for local residents to use during concerts and festivals that concertgoers could not use.