Coney Island Amphitheater May Be Stymied by Synagogues

Plans to build an 8,000 seat, $64 million outdoor amphitheater in Coney Island’s Asser Levy Park may be derailed because the venue would be too close to two synagogues. City law bans amplified sound within 500 feet of a place of worship during religious services, and that would seemingly prevent concerts from being scheduled on Friday nights or Saturdays. A growing number of community members are fighting the development—a pet project of Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz—on the grounds that it would gobble up precious park land and give back nothing but cacophony. And now the leaders of the two nearby synagogues are joining the effort to stop construction, which is expected to begin in August and finish by summer of 2012. But Markowitz remains committed to what many are calling "The Chip" because of its potato chip-like shape. He tells the Daily News it's too early to talk about programming at the venue, which he hopes will become a stop on the summer concert tour cirquit to rival Jones Beach: "There's not a project anywhere in Brooklyn that doesn't meet with some folks in the community opposing it."