Supervisors Ready To Sue Over Noise From The Rock Sportsplex

Franklin Field at The Rock Sportsplex and Ballpark Commons. Photo taken Oct. 9, 2021 by Dave Reid.

A handful of Milwaukee County Supervisors are fed up with the owners of The Rock Sportsplex in Franklin and are prepared to sue over prolonged noise issue.

All could be avoided, and the sound issue solved, it seems, if the owners of the development would turn down the volume of their sound systems. Supervisors are frustrated that there has been no progress and are preparing to develop a strategy for legal action with the county’s attorneys.

For roughly a decade, nearby residents have complained of loud and nuisance noise issuing from the development, known as The Rock Sportsplex and Ballpark Commons. The developer, ROC Ventures, led by Mike Zimmerman, initially leased the land from the county, but in 2017 finalized a deal to purchase the site, located near the intersection of W. Loomis Road and S. 76th Street.

Since the acquisition, the noise issue has continued. Residents have repeatedly complained to the Franklin Police Department, the City of Franklin and Milwaukee County.

At a meeting of the board’s Audit Committee Thursday, supervisors heard a presentation on the results of a $200,000 sound study they ordered last year for the Rock. The firm, Resource Systems Group Inc. (RSG) monitored sound at various locations around the Rock for approximately six months. The technical report outlining the study runs more than 200 pages.

Dana Lodico noted that the noise her firm measured around the development was, on average, within the standard limit of 65 decibels set by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). Milwaukee Milkmen baseball games, on average, are also in compliance with ANSI standards. But the study also recorded noises, at times, above 70 decibels.

But the sound issue is complicated by the fact that the events are “extremely variable,” Lodico said. Music and announcements are loud sounds punctuating the area at various and different times that are not easily captured in an average noise metric. The data itself indicates that peak noises are in fact “much higher” than the averages.

The study did not provide the definitive, scientific conclusion about noise at The Rock that supervisors wanted. And nearby residents have criticized the study for not capturing the reality of their day-to-day struggle with noise emanating from The Rock.

There is noise that comes from The Rock and Ballpark Commons and it is loud. Urban Milwaukee has viewed videos taken from nearby residential areas that show this. Regardless of what the average decibel level is, the noise is driving nearby residents to desperation. The City of Franklin, residents say, refuses to help them force the owners of The Rock to turn the volume down.

As Sup. Patti Logsdon recently said, the sportsplex and Ballpark Commons were developed on “a parcel of land, in the middle of a residential area, houses built around it.” 

A problem for residents is that the Franklin Common Council approved a noise limit of 79 decibels at the property line of the development in its deal with the developers, whereas Franklin’s own ordinances limit noise in residential neighborhoods to 50 decibels. That deal was struck in part by Steve Taylor, who was then both a Franklin alderman and county supervisor. Taylor boasted online “if I wasn’t in office, the Ballpark Commons project would not happen.” Taylor now works as the executive director of the ROC Foundation, the nonprofit arm of ROC Ventures.

Sup. Felesia Martin said she visited a nearby neighborhood to investigate the noise and said, “I just cannot imagine having children or animals in that vicinity.”

The study did make a number of recommendations. These included technical changes for Franklin’s noise ordinances and penalties tailored specifically for nuisance speech or music, “with the understanding that sounds with speech or music can result in higher levels of annoyance,” Lodico said.

But others were very simple and seemed to corroborate something nearby residents have long said, that the noise is intentional. Specifically, the study confirmed that there are, in fact, speakers pointed directly at residential neighborhoods and away from the ballpark.

“So one of our recommendations was just to turn the speakers toward, you know, toward the spectator areas, which, of course, would allow them also to turn the volume down because they wouldn’t be losing so much sound to the community areas,” Lodico said.

What’s more, blasting their neighbors with noise may actually be costing the business money, Lodico explained. She said that optimizing the sound system would likely save the facility on its energy costs.

Residents, Supervisors at Their Wits End

John McAdams is a neighbor of The Rock.  He said he is tired of wasting his time on this issue.

“All we are asking, and it comes down to this, turn down the volume,” he said.

McAdams shared these wishes with supervisors and punctuated his comments with “please” and “please help.”

McAdams was one of a few residents who said that when RSG came to their neighborhood last summer to take measurements, the sound coming out of The Rock and Ballpark Commons was, thankfully, quiet that day.

“I was thinking ‘Is this going to be the new standard? Is he finally turning the volume down?'” McAdams said. “No.”

Sup. Anthony Staskunas called for County Executive David Crowley to intervene. “We need him to get involved in this, and we need him to exercise some leadership on this particular topic,” Staskunas said. “We now have some very specific recommendations, and I really think the way to approach this at this point is for the county exec to be in touch with Mr. Zimmerman.”

Logsdon is among the supervisors that have been working on the issue for years. She and Sup. Deanna Alexander expressed at Wednesday’s committee meeting that they would like to see the county pursue a solution through the courts. Alexander said most members of the board “are beyond frustrated” with the issue and said she was prepared to draft a resolution in committee directing the county’s Office of Corporation Counsel to identify ways to bring the issue to a resolution, including a lawsuit.

Logsdon has already drafted legislation that would direct corporation counsel to “take nuisance abatement action” and to “pursue damages for noncompliance” with the development agreement inked with the county at the time of the land sale. There are items in that agreement related to sound monitoring and a sound study that were never met, according to supervisors.

Alexander said she is ready to legislate and push “whatever we need to do to bring this to a reasonable conclusion.”