Champlain Valley Expo wants to improve its grandstand. First it needs permission to make more noise.

ESSEX JUNCTION — Vermont’s largest concert venue sits dormant 11 months out of the year — and walking the empty aisles, it’s not hard to see why.

At the Champlain Valley Exposition grandstand, teal paint is peeling off the wooden benches. The metal stairs are rusting. The seats can be a tight fit: There are two between each armrest, so you and your date (or a stranger) might have to get cozy, executive director Tim Shea pointed out last week, chuckling as he surveyed the rows.

“I mean, how much can you really charge for a ticket if you’re sitting in this?”

The ground-level seating isn’t much better. Between the grandstand and the stage is a dirt track that, if it has rained any time recently, becomes a mud pit into which lawn chairs sink over the course of a show. The bathrooms are also in need of an overhaul, Shea said, as is the backstage area for performers, which consists of a shower shack and a couple of trailers.

In its current state, the grandstand — with a capacity of roughly 10,000 — simply isn’t appealing for big acts to book, Shea said. Plus, the city only allows up to 20 days a year for noisy events like concerts. The expo is looking to change the latter in hopes of remedying the former — but some neighbors are pushing back.

Outside of the 10-day Champlain Valley Fair, all concerts currently take place on the adjacent Midway Lawn, which has a maximum capacity of around 5,000 and no seats. Even Noah Kahan, the Strafford-raised folk-pop star coming to Essex Junction on Sept. 19 for a benefit concert, will play on the lawn, not the main stage.

“It’s unfortunate; you could have sold 10,000 tickets in there and raised a lot more money,” Shea said. “But the grandstand in its current state just doesn’t work. It’s not a good experience.”

The expo, a nonprofit, operated at a loss last year and projects the same this year, according to Shea. He expects expenses to keep rising. With the signature outdoor venue in need of an overhaul to even be functional, the expo appears to be in a difficult bind. Shea thinks the solution, however, is fairly simple: more concerts.

The concept was presented first to the community in a forum hosted by the expo on June 18, then to the Essex Junction City Council on June 26.

As Shea told the council, the problem lies in that it costs too much to put up and take down the main stage for each individual concert. The city gives the expo 20 sound waivers — permission to exceed the noise ordinance for a special event — every year.

If the venue got 35, Shea said, it could justify keeping the stage up from May to October and host all concerts at the larger venue. Those extra concerts would fund the grandstand’s renovation — including new seats, paving of the ground-level area and improved bathrooms. He hopes that those improvements, in turn, would attract bigger acts to Vermont, benefiting the expo, local businesses, the city and concertgoers alike.

The expo estimates the additional activity would produce $600,000 in local options tax revenue over the next 10 years.

The city council did not take a vote on June 26, but asked preliminary questions about the proposal. Council president Raj Chawla wrote in an email that the city would follow up with more specific questions soon, which would be discussed at a later city council meeting, though he said no date for that has been set.

Some community members have expressed support for the expo’s plans, saying they would look forward to more concerts, potentially from bigger artists. Cathy Davis, president of the Lake Champlain Chamber, said in an interview that an expanded slate of concerts at the expo would likely benefit neighbors and local businesses alike.

“We all know folks who leave the area for cultural events. They might drive out of state,” Davis said. “Maybe [the expo] can be a draw for people to come here instead.”

But others are concerned about the nuisance of additional noise.

“Why do we have a noise ordinance in the first place?” asked Essex Junction resident Chris Chiquoine at the city council meeting, before answering his own question by reading from the city’s public nuisance code . “It is, ‘to protect the public health, safety and general welfare.’”

Chiquoine continued, “So when you decide to give waivers for that, you are making a business decision to the detriment of the general welfare. It’s as simple as that.”

Steve Eustis, another resident who spoke at the meeting, said in an interview that he would like the expo to be more proactive in making any increased noise more palatable for neighbors.

“You want to support the fair. They do a lot of good. But there’s been no, ‘here’s how we’re going to help you,’” Eustis said. “Where’s all their ideas?”

He added that the city council ought to be sure the decision on whether to approve the additional waivers is informed by broad public opinion. The noise and traffic is often quite disruptive, Eustis said, noting that he can often hear concerts from inside his house several blocks from the expo. It sometimes seems to him as though it is louder there than it is on Pearl Street, adjacent to the expo, he said.

“We’ve walked home and only heard a little din from the fair on Pearl Street,” Eustis said. “But then we’re walking away, and it just gets louder and louder.”

Several people said in the meeting that they had experienced the same thing. Shea said later that he was not sure why that would be the case but that the expo would be looking into it.

Other suggestions from the community included planting trees to mitigate the sound and giving Essex Junction residents discounts or early access to tickets — both of which Shea said the expo would look into, though it contracts with Higher Ground to handle ticketing, and as such does not have the final say on pricing. Shea said the expo has been intentional about trying to hear any and all concerns from community members.

“We try to make ourselves as available as possible,” he said. “We want to be able to answer questions because, you know, we want to be good neighbors.”

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