Dorney Park denied nightly fireworks by zoning board, appealing decision

In that way, Dorney is kind of like Carowinds.

But Carrie, Dorney is where it's at!

^ Only on Coasting For Kids day. :) Maybe they could just have fireworks on June 9th.

Now there's an idea: Fireworks For Kids! Oh wait, hmm...

sirloindude said:

But Carrie, Dorney is where it's at!

Used to be, my friend. Used to be. ;-)

birdhombre said:

Now there's an idea: Fireworks For Kids! Oh wait, hmm...

I live in FL - the winning idea here is "Firearms for kids." Somehow I think your idea is safer...

Carrie J. said:

sirloindude said:

But Carrie, Dorney is where it's at!

Used to be, my friend. Used to be. ;-)

Still is, 'cause you and Justin will be there in spirit!

After reading through this entire thread, I'm surprised at how many NIMBY's are in this community.

Personally I would love to live behind a park and have the loud fireworks, music, and roller coasters.

Fireworks- a good way to end my day

Music- I'd always be up on with the times about what music is good or popular

Roller Coasters- Obviously the best window view I can think of :)

If you live near a park then you have to understand that you will have a constant flow of noise all season and most likely will have a view of the park rides high above your house. Get over it! You were the one who purchased the house backed up to the amusement park.

Will G said:

If you live near a park then you have to understand that you will have a constant flow of noise all season and most likely will have a view of the park rides high above your house. Get over it! You were the one who purchased the house backed up to the amusement park.

If you run a park near a neighborhood then you have to understand that you will have a to be considerate of those residents and your place in the community. Get over it! You were the one who built a park surrounded by a neighborhood.

(smile)

It's not a one way street.

But in a lot of these cases the park used to be in the country, and the housing was built up around it long after the park had been established. This can be blamed on poor zoning by the municipality coupled by the greed of the developers. Most of our established parks are in this position. This was the situation that eventually forced Elitches to move to the old rail yards. Knotts was in the middle of an agriculture area up until the housing boom of the late 1950's. The list goes on.

Ok. So the situation changed. It's up to both sides to determine how to move forward.

Dorney adds new rides all the time with no issues. However, in this case the residents would rather not have the nightly fireworks.

That's compromise.

The park doesn't just get to do what it wants because it's an amusement park...or a business...or was there first. It's not kindergarten government.

Of course, if it was a Death Star. . . :)

For all the Non-Dorney Park Residents who think this is no big deal, I would appreciate your response or view point to the following other points of view.

1) What exactly do you think Dorney does for the local community and economy? Take a look at the Lehigh Valley business statistics from the Visitor Bureau revenue list. The money Dorney draws into the valley stays in Dorney's pocket and does not help anywhere else. People come to the park and then go home. They stay there all day, eat there and do not go out before or after the park as most other entertainment venues draw people in and add to the local community revenues. What they add to the local community is traffic congestion, noise and lack of pedestrian safety.

2) My family of 6 (16yr old, 11, 7 and 1 yr old) are all affected when dealing with the holiday fireworks, let alone if they had to endure 7 minutes every day for 2 months. Would you really have no problem if your neighbor, who provides you with no friendly consolation or invitation to join them in their nightly festivities as a good gesture, would have nightly 7 minute loud noise or any kind? What if your neighbor had outside heavy metal rock band practice for just 7-8 minutes every night for 2 months, would you be ok with that? Come on, who doesn’t like heavy metal free concert every night! Don't assume everyone is a huge fan of fireworks. Some people who have watched the most spectacular shows ever could really care less about some small performance ... really watching every night a 7 minute "small display" for 2 months would be enjoyable? If that's the case, have all the fireworks you want, just don't have any loud banging type. When your 11 and 7 year olds say that firework noise is really annoying rather than wanting to go watch it, perhaps you don't have children to understand this point of view.

Thanks for reading my rant and in my opinion for the cost of the nightly firework show, Dorney could use that money otherwise to draw in more revenue. It is bad enough they are extending their hours without any local resident advanced notice or township request but really they need to add more noise to the park noise?

I have really hard time believing that the tourism caused by Dorney doesn't result in significant tax revenue, not to mention prop up dozens of local hotels and restaurants, all of which (and including Dorney) provide jobs, which in turn result in more tax revenue.

DorneyParkRoadResident said: What if your neighbor had outside heavy metal rock band practice for just 7-8 minutes every night for 2 months

I would say rock out! Much better than hearing Nicki Minaj or Justin Beiber!

But joking aside... I'm sorry about the noise and other issues. The older I get, the more sensitive I get to noise (better than the other way I guess!), so I can understand your frustration. I hope there can be some compromise around the situation. California's Great America (also run by Cedar Fair, the operators of Dorney) are working around the clock to put tunnels and walls all around their new coaster to help with the noise issue. Every little bit counts.

And nothing against Nicki or Justin. They're just an easy target. Which make me lame for jumping on that bandwagon.

DorneyParkRoadResident said:

What if your neighbor had outside heavy metal rock band practice for just 7-8 minutes every night for 2 months, would you be ok with that?

Maybe if they were awesome. But really, the odds of an Allentown metal band being awesome I would imagine are very low...especially if they only practice 7 minutes a night.

If you look in Birds Eye view over Dorney Park on Google Maps steel force is missing the top of the lift hill and drop :)

I hate it when people create accounts just to debate a specific news story.

I thought we had an extremely balanced discussion going on, esp. for a site called CoasterBuzz....

But now I see things completely differently...

What does Dorney do for the local Allentown economy? lol

Well, hotel occupancy goes up. I bet breakfast sales go up at the restaurants. Your local department stores probably sell more, especially travel items like swim suits and coolers, because of the park. I bet your local gas stations sell a buttload of fuel when the park is open for the season.

That means more jobs, which can cause more people to live in Allentown, which causes more tax revenue. The people working at the park need to spend their money, so that means even more goods and services are being sold, which means more money flowing through your city.

Now that we are talking about compromise here, maybe the economic security of your city should be number one priority, so maybe the neighbors should be excited when Dorney Park wants to do something to entice more guests to bring their wallets to Allentown.

And this is coming from a high school educated guy who is pretty terrible at math and really has no interest in how the economy works.