An Arizona continuing care retirement community continues to lose local support in its fight with a neighboring concert venue over noise levels after city officials asked the court to reverse its previous ruling that favored the life plan community.
The city of Tempe filed an amicus brief recently siding with music venue Shady Park in an ongoing dispute with Mirabella at ASU. The brief, according to KTVK/KPHO, asked the court to reverse its previous ruling, saying the judge “mischaracterized” the area as primarily residential when it always has been a mixed-use area.
City Council said that the judge’s recusal from the case one month after his ruling and two weeks after Shady Park filed an appeal over an apparent conflict of interest only adds to their argument.
In April, the Maricopa County Superior Court sided with Mirabella, which asked for an injunction to prohibit Shady Park from emitting noise that exceeds the city’s community standard. The court also found that the concert venue is located in a residential, non-music commercial setting, and it placed parameters on the venue’s noise levels and concert hours.
Shortly after that ruling, Tempe City Council members signed a letter expressing their “strong support” for Shady Park as a “driver of a thriving arts and culture community.” They backed that letter up with the amicus brief.
In a statement to the media outlet, Mirabella Executive Director Tom Dorough noted that the Superior Court already found that the city of Tempe was “biased” in favor of Shady Park.
“This is just another unfortunate example of the city trying to influence the courts while ignoring its role in approving our innovative community,” Dorough said. “These projects take a long time from concept to construction, and the city of Tempe was involved in bringing Mirabella to life.”
He went on to say City Council members helped Mirabella break ground in 2018, and the mayor celebrated the community’s grand opening in 2020. The community was first announced in 2016.
The first residents moved into Mirabella at ASU in December 2020, when Shady Park had paused live events for 14 months during the pandemic, then began them again. Mirabella residents subsequently complained about the venue’s noise and hours of operation. When the CCRC filed noise complaints against Shady Park, supporters of the venue blasted the community on social media, accusing it of a “coordinated, aggressive campaign” to shut down live music there.
Mirabella indicated that it only went to court for a preliminary injunction after failed attempts to resolve the issue with Shady Park.
