Instead of finalizing plans for its 11th year in Park County, the Apogaea music and arts festival is looking for a new home this week after deciding it can’t operate under regulations the county’s planning commission has recently imposed.

“Park County is inhospitable toward special events of any nature,” said Lawrence Phipps, 48, spokesman and co-founder of Apogaea. “They created a process that is very painful for everybody involved. It puts a challenging logistical burden on us to do the event safely.”

The nonprofit Apogaea, an officially sanctioned offshoot of Nevada’s Burning Man Festival, is scrambling for a location to replace its private, 60-acre site near Bailey and will offer refunds to ticket holders for the June 10-14 event if it can’t find a home by those dates. Apogaea is relatively small by music-fest standards, with an expected attendance of 2,350 this year.

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Phipps said despite a history of cooperation with Park County’s government, including its sheriff’s, fire and permitting departments, a small group of vocal residents has pushed new regulations that make it impossible for Apogaea to safely set up and dismantle its elaborate stages, art exhibits and more — for example, by reducing the amount of time allotted to the festival overall.

Multiple calls and e-mails to Park County tourism, city planning officials and sheriff’s offices were not returned as of early Monday evening.

Park County’s population of 16,345, according to a 2014 U.S. Census report, has expressed frustration with a recent influx of tourists and large-scale music festivals such as Sonic Bloom and last year’s inaugural, marijuana-focused South Park Festival.

One concern: When weather permits, Apogaea has followed the Burning Man Festival’s example of ceremonially torching large wooden structures, all with the cooperation of the Platte Canyon Fire Protection District.

“With the fire danger what it is, is anyone else concerned that Park County would allow this event to be held in our mountains east of Bailey on County Rd 68?” wrote user “vintago” on the Pinecam.com site. “This should NOT be allowed to take place in our county.”

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Other residents have complained about how special events have wreaked havoc on the main thoroughfare of U.S. 285, a two-lane road that easily gets clogged for hours with increased traffic. Taxpayer-funded ambulance calls, trash pickup and quality of life have also suffered, some say.

“The Apogaea festival held on private land about two-and-one-half miles southeast of Bailey on County Road 68 now shatters our serenity for four straight days every June,” wrote Bailey resident Steven L. Vincze, in a Dec. 18, 2014, letter to the Fairplay Flume newspaper. “Fire, sex, drugs and alcohol are the motivator for these misguided folks.”

Apogaea co-founder Phipps disputed that characterization and said Park County residents had few, if any, problems with the event in previous years.

“They have a small but vocal group of concerned residents agitating to get rid of anything, whether it’s a sports event or a music festival,” he said. “C.A.V.E., or Citizens Against Virtually Everything, they call them. As a result, we’re withdrawing from the process.”

Resident-led revolts in other Colorado communities have in recent years forced events such as the SnowBall, Riot Fest and Chive music festivals to look for new homes or modify their programming.

John Wenzel: 303-954-1642, jwenzel@denverpost.com or twitter.com/johnwenzel