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2004-02-16 Meeting Report (CSHS Baseball Field Lighting)SPIN Citywide Forum for Neighborhood #16 Topic. Proposed Lighting for CSHS Baseball Field Monday, February 16, 2004 7.00 p.m. Southlake Town Hall Third Floor Training Rooms Summary of Questions and Comments How many lights? How many poles? How high are the poles? We need a lot more detail on everything. Does this proposal include softball and baseball fields, or just the baseball field? How high is the pole holding the lights are going to be? Who is going to pay for our houses declined value? Is there someplace we can see some of these lights? Who will be in charge of the regulation of the lights and making sure that the meet all this is required (by ordinance)? We have had bad experiences with the school district, the lights on the tennis courts they leave on 24 7. We expect that these lights on the ballfields would follow a similar experience. For us to take the leap of faith that this is going to keep the light off of our homes is something that we cannot do based on our previous experience. Are the poles silver, black in color? What is the timeframe for installation of these lights? I would like to ask a question of the School Board official, what effort was made to work with the neighbors? Were there any efforts prior to tonight to work with the neighbors? Your efforts in working with the neighbors are indeed after the fact? Who do we talk with in the School District regarding the other ongoing maintenance issues relating to the Senior High School Site? There are a multitude of problems to address that have been ongoing, be it to the point, the School has not been a good neighbor to us, why would we trust that you would take care of the light system? Were you aware that we were told that there would never be lighting at the Senior High School athletic fields? We all have plans that show future buildings and fields that have no lights. We have bought our houses based upon the plans that you had given us that showed no lighting. Are you requesting a variance? Do you have documented pre -plans that show lights as you describe ever being on these fields? There is a lot of documentation that neighbors have right here that shows that there would be no lighting on these fields. I have asked the school board numerous times as to what hours these lights are going to be in operation, there has been no discussion at all internally and externally to me as one of the homeowners in the area to discuss this. So, who is to say, that the school, the board, or this league decides to hold a double header that extends the game time and operation into the late evening? Practices, UIL regulates school practices, but what kind of practice schedule would be kept with the addition of these lights? What kind of correlation is there between being a good baseball player and playing at night? When does the regular season start for the high school? What about the possibility of doing a Dragon Tournament that would extend the use of the field beyond one game a week? So, my understanding is that, ten weeks in the school season, with eight nine weeks with the other team, so we are talking eighteen 1 nineteen weeks that the lighting would be on per year? How many nights are we really talking about here, I am trying to get an idea of specifically how many nights these lights are going to be on. That is our point, you have a difficult structure here that is quite frankly, ugly. You are talking about increased noise, congestion, and all of this impacts our property values. Presently there is garbage that the athletes leave along the fence line, the football goal posts are up all throughout the year. Why are the football goalposts up all throughout the year? What about security? I am a softball coach, we have five home games per year. We have five home games per year because no one wants to come and play us because we have no lights. That results in our students having to travel to play games. The trash that is present is not being left by the athletes, it is being left by the school you live near a school. There are thousands of people there. That is exactly our point these lights bring in more people. School baseball, fine. School softball, fine. But when you are talking about a commercial baseball team, a team that has nothing to do with our school system. This team will use the fields during a time when it has typically been quiet prior to the football season coming up. We did not sign up to have an outside team come in and use our school during a relatively quiet time of the year. I have never heard of such a thing, a commercial baseball team coming and playing at a public school that our taxes pay to support. This is just a way for you to get free lights, but it is going to cost me $50,000 for you to put these Ights up. The position that you are putting us in, you are backing us into a corner here your position is that there is no room for compromise; that these lights are going up. You are backing us into a corner here. We have never had any problems with our basketball games held at the high school before. You have not had to deal with the kids that drink beer in the parking lot prior to games. I can imagine that having eighteen to twenty ,year old kids playing at the school would result in an increase in drinking at the site. We rent out a gym on Sundays and the place is packed and there have been no problems. Is the baseball team paying for the use of the field in the summer, they are going to give us revenue to help our school district offset the impact of Robin Hood. We need to be supporting our school district. I pay activity fees each year for my kids to participate in school activities, I grumble about it but I pay it. I am, however, not willing to sacrifice $50,000 of my property values for a few people to have access to lighted fields. How many people go to our school district? This would benefit 7,200 kids, not ,just a few people.. I pay taxes for that twenty percent of kids who participate in school athletics, it should be sufficient. But what about the kids sitting at home that have to stay away from the windows because of the bright lights? How many people are on a softball team fifteen.? Twenty? Those are more kids than would be sitting at home at night having to stay away from the windows, Are there no other facilities in Southlake that could accommodate this type of use? I am curious that why this team came here to play. If we are the only school that doesn't have Iights, why doesn't the team go to another location to play where there are lights? Curious as to why they didn't go to Grapevine or somewhere where they didn't have to pay $150,000 for lighting. We all have kids, we all love baseball, but trying to make us look like evil -doers here is not appropriate. How much is the school going to get in terms of money for this deal? Have they done a study to accommodate how much money they would be getting as a result of the reduced property values from the surrounding homes, resulting in less tax revenue generated? How much will it cost to operate these lights throughout the year? Have you considered how much money the school is going to get as a result of subtracting the $141 hour it costs to run these lights? How about security costs and other extras. I am not talking about the team, I am talking about school events. Have you factored in those costs towards what you expect to get out of this deal? Has this been voted on? Has the City Planning and Zoning Commission reviewed anything at this point? What good does this meeting do when you act as if you don't care about how the neighborhood feels about this issue? Does your cost estimate for running these lights include the costs for maintenance of the structures? Is there a maximum number of nights that these lights can be turned on? Would the school district be willing to guarantee the number of nights that these lights would be turned on per year? So is it where we are at that there is no discussion, no compromise possible? Can you imagine what the noise levels are going to be with the increased use of the fields? Who is responsible in the School District for noise, is it really necessary to have stereos on the tennis courts? Who is responsible for the trash on the school site? When is this on the City Council agenda? Is this in fact a done deal? Could you define each year what the schedule will be for these lights? These people may not be able to stop this from happening, but they should have a right to be heard and listened to. So are you willing to give an approximate number of days that these lights would be used we are concerned about additional events and things like concerts happening under these lights. How many homeowners attend the games at the baseball field? Who is buying the lights? Are there any other issues relevant to this project that you will bring up to the City Council? How many people do you expect to attend these games? Are we in fact talking about this arrangement starting up this summer?