NYC judge muffles concerts at Forest Hills Stadium over noise complaints from neighbors

A Queens neighborhood is done plugging its ears after a judge ordered the owners of Forest Hills Stadium to turn down the volume amid lingering complaints from locals.

Supreme Court Justice Joseph Esposito agreed that the racket from the venue — and wandering concertgoers — was a legitimate nuisance for neighbors, and ordered the venue’s overseers to put a lid on it following a lawsuit filed by the Forest Hills Garden Corp., a local civic group.

“The crowds overtake the street. It’s overwhelming,” one neighbor told The Post. “The trash after [concerts] is ridiculous. When I moved here I looked forward to a quiet-ish neighborhood. The rock concerts are pounding on my ear drums.”

“Of course I want everyone to enjoy their summer,” the 61-year-old said. “I’m hoping there is a way for us to coexist but I don’t see how.”

Local resident Esther Welsh said she doesn’t so much mind the concerts — as the crowds they attract.

“I like the concerts,” Welsh said. “I think they’re nice and good for the neighborhood. But I do think we don’t have the infrastructure— basically, we need more trash cans. People come and there’s nowhere to put their trash. So there’s trash everywhere after the concerts.”

In his April 19 ruling, Esposito said the civic group had made its case loud and clear.

“The court finds that [Forest Hills Garden] is entitled to a preliminary injunction prohibiting [Forest Hills Stadium] from permitting excessive noise to emanate from the stadium,” Esposito wrote.

“The affidavit of [Forest Hill Garden’s] expert wherein he concluded that the noise complained of was approximately 100 times the legal limit for the residential neighborhood was unrebutted by competent proof and the affidavits of the residents detailed the nightly assault ton the quiet enjoyment of their respective homes,” the April 19 ruling said.

The  Forest Hills Gardens Corporation will now hire a contractor to monitor noise and file the findings while putting up barricades to keep concertgoers from wandering into the neighborhood.

They also have to get a sound permit from the city.

A separate bid by another local group, Concerned Citizens of Forest Hills, which sought an injunction to temporarily shut down shows at the venue, was shot down by another judge.

Supreme Court Justice Robert Caloras agreed that noise monitoring made sense but denied the request to halt the shows, and noted that the venue “has extended great effort and expense to implement noise mitigation measures” and deserved to have the summer concert calendar kick off as planned.

The 13,000-seat landmark stadium, run by West Side Tennis Club and opened in 1923, has hosted world-famous performers including The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Frank Sinatra and The Rolling Stones.

In recent years the number of events has increased — and so has the noise level and frequency of patrons spilling out onto local streets, neighbors contend.

Chris Jaray, 46, has lived in the neighborhood his whole life, and his family owned the house across from the stadium for almost 100 years. He said he used to like the concerts until it became too much.

“At first I was a fan, when there was 15 of them and it was kind of low key,” Jaray told The Post. “But when they started adding 30 of them and then there all day. Some of them the noise is ridiculous like when they have the drum and bass shows, my house really shakes.

“So I’m not a fan of that,” Jaray said. “If they scale it back to the 15 concerts the way they originally had it — the other thing is, those 30-plus concerts is every weekend in the summer.”

The association sued the stadium’s overseers in May 2023, seeking a break from the noise.

Anthony Oprisiu, president of the Forest Hills Gardens Corporation board of directors, said they tried — and failed — to work out a deal with West Side Tennis Club.

“Our community was forced to sue the West Side Tennis Club after the club and its for-profit concert operator, Tiebreaker, brazenly refused to coordinate with us overuse and closure of streets, noise levels, concert logistics and TRIPLING the original number of events they promised when concerts returned to the stadium ten years ago after a halt of over a decade,” he said in a statement.

“We’re appreciative that the court heard our concerns and made this decision,” Oprisiu added.

“We look forward to working with West Side Tennis Club, Tiebreaker, city agencies, and City Hall to ensure 2024 events follow the law and demonstrate more respect towards our community while the remainder of this important lawsuit is resolved by the Court.”

But West Side Tennis wouldn’t go away quietly, serving the civic group with a countersuit in September.

“The Forest Hills Stadium is an iconic venue that has always sought to minimize its impact on local residents and comply with the law throughout its one-hundred-year history,” Akiva Shapiro of the law firm of Gibson Dunn, which represents West Side Tennis Club, said in a statement last week.

“It will continue to do so in connection with the recent orders of Justices Esposito and Caloras of the Queens Supreme Court, and looks forward to the opportunity presented by the orders to implement a security plan that will ensure concertgoers’ entry and exit in an orderly manner, and to have an independent sound monitor report on Stadium sound levels,” Shapiro said.

“The Stadium looks forward to hosting the fast-approaching concert season.”

In its countersuit, the stadium complained that civic group was acting “in bad faith” in discussions with West Side Tennis and was guilty of “repeated and intentional misrepresentation” of the dispute.

And despite the long-running feud, some locals interviewed by The Post said they’re still kind of fond of the 100-year-old concert venue in their backyard.

“I’m a supporter of the stadium” said resident Juliana Chessin. “I think for young families it’s really fun. They close the streets down, my son rides his scooter and we go hang out in the Forest Hills Center.

“For us, it’s been a really nice, fun thing to have in the neighborhood and I think it’s something that makes the neighborhood special,” Chessin said.