Five residents who live near Allen Field spoke out against a La Jolla Youth Inc. request to install temporary lighting and start Saturday soccer games earlier during the July 11 meeting of the La Jolla Shores Association.
Those living along Dunaway and Prestwick drives said the noise from children and the increase in traffic along their streets due to soccer games and practices was significantly impacting their quality of life.
“We are afraid temporary lighting would lead to something more permanent,” resident Elaine Schneider said. “We are concerned that the tournament activity will start earlier and earlier, and while we always support La Jolla Youth Soccer, we also need to protect our way of life.”
Schneider, who was joined by residents Ian Lerner and Alex Varon, asked La Jolla Youth Inc. to reconsider asking for a 7 a.m. warm-up start time on Saturdays and portable lighting for the field during November and December. The Shores Association voted 8-1 to form a working group with La Jolla Youth Inc. and resident stakeholders to resolve the issue before August.
A field lease agreement between La Jolla Youth Inc. and the city states that use of the site will start at 8 a.m., according to LJSA president Sherri Lightner, who held a copy of the document signed last year by the two parties.
Eric Chapman, a La Jolla Youth Soccer board member, argued that the current lease agreement did not allow team members proper time to stretch. Games must begin no later than 8 a.m. so that La Jolla Youth Soccer can clear the field in time for other groups to use the facility, Chapman explained.
The Nomads, another youth soccer league, also uses Allen Field for practice and games, and La Jolla Youth Inc. shares the available time slots with the group of about 600 children, Chapman said.
Several residents whose homes border Allen Field said they were concerned that the portable lights, which would be wheeled onto the field during games and practices and then stored while not in use, would cause light pollution in their neighborhood.
“In a very short time, the Venter Institute will be going on and there will be a lot more light pollution from that,” resident Tim Lucas said. “So this might be the least of your problems.”
Lerner, a Dunaway Drive resident, questioned Chapman and Murray Helm, La Jolla Youth Inc. president, about the organization’s future growth potential and its maximum program acceptance, making the comment that if kids continued to enroll in the problem, it would continue to escalate.
“Sports are good for kids,” Helm said. “If you are asking if we are going to turn anyone away, the answer is no.”
Cliffridge Avenue resident Craig Lee agreed with Helm’s argument and said the community should be more accommodating to activities that improve the well-being of its residents.
“When you live in La Jolla, you live as part of a community ” it’s not just about your house; what your house looks like, what your garden looks like,” Lee said. “There’s kids and schools and organizations that weigh in, and things aren’t always perfect. This isn’t a perfect solution, but I ask you to consider this for the benefit of the kids.”
The Shores Association hopes to vote on the matter by the end of July and have a finalized start time before the league makes its August schedule.
In other business, LJSA heard from Cathy Winterrowd, a senior planner with the city’s planning and community investment department, about a large archaeological site along Spindrift Drive that could possibly contain human remains.
“We need to make sure the people who live there know what’s there in their backyards,” Winterrowd said of the site, which stretches south of Princess Street to the north of La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club and possibly as far east as Torrey Pines Road. “We want to study the area and look at the best way to protect and preserve the site.”
The city’s concern is that residents are pursuing projects that call for major excavation of their property, later to discover that the land was once an ancient burial site and contains Indian artifacts and remains, Winterrowd said.
Tribes within the Kumeyaay Indian Nation have filed formal complaints with the state against the city for two separate property excavations along Sprindrift Drive, according to Winterrowd.
The La Jolla Shores Association meets at 7 p.m. the second Wednesday of every month except August at Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
For more information, visit www.lajollaguide.com/ljsa or send e-mail to [email protected].