The pitched battle between factions for and against installing stadium lights proposed as part of Point Loma High School’s modernization is reheating, with opponents resuming fundraising to challenge the project while an environmental document in its favor is to go before the San Diego Unified School District on April 26. The Pro Point Loma steering committee, representing more than 800 Loma Portal neighbors, parents and alumni, sent out a March 28 press release noting their anti-stadium lights group has “agreed to resume fundraising in order to sue to stop SDUSD from illegally developing the PLHS football field into a profit-making special events center.” Pro-lights Progress for Point Loma High School and anti-lights Pro Point Loma ad-hoc groups have been lobbying over the controversial athletic field lighting issue via websites, Facebook pages and yard signs for the past couple years. At issue is a proposal contained in a long-range school site master plan revision now under way to provide the school’s heretofore unlit field with permanent lighting. New lighting would consist of four towers allowing for maximum lighting of the field and minimal spillover into nearby properties, according to school officials. The meeting will be held at 5 p.m. at the Eugene Brucker Education Center Auditorium, 4100 Normal St. Sides over the proposal have been clearly drawn, with opponents insisting light installation would be an unresolvable imposition on neighbors creating more traffic and parking problems and crime and light pollution as well as opening the campus up to commercial exploitation. Light proponents note that Point Loma is one of only three out of 15 district high schools without field lighting. They argue new lighting is long overdue and is needed by the school to promote athletics, band, ROTC and other student activities. David Dick, a Peninsula Community Planning Board member speaking on his own behalf, doesn’t think the light issue has to be an either/or proposition. “Whether this proposal is the right project in the right place is often determined by the people representing us (citizens) who’ve been elected or appointed (by the school district),” he said. “What I have suggested to some people who say lights should never be approved at PLHS because they would be too impactful is that there must be a middle way, a third way. “What we could come up with together is a field-use policy for PLHS that would be legally binding, which would be a reasonable agreement that is enforceable between the city of San Diego and the school district,” Dick said. That agreement, continued Dick, would not only spell out all the necessary conditions as to how groups might utilize the stadium facilities but also restrict the number and type of events that could be held there. That, he added, would ensure liberties are not taken in commercializing the facility benefiting outside groups and not students or neighbors. Dick also pointed out that studies have indicated lights of such magnitude as those proposed at Point Loma High School stadium, coupled with high moisture content near the coastline, would create “light domes” and a “halo effect,” allowing them to be seen far away on the Peninsula. He added that enhancements to the stadium public address system could also cause noise spillage into the surrounding neighborhood. Elaine Burrell, a parent and Loma Portal homeowner, defended the school stadium lights proposal. “Progress for PLHS is a group of community members who support the upgrades at PLHS, including stadium lighting,” Burrell said. “We feel it is important to advocate for the students regarding this issue, as there has been a great deal of negativity circulating in our community about it, which — intentionally or unintentionally — characterizes the students and our high school in a negative way. “The athletic facilities upgrades would be a tremendous improvement for the students, athletes and nonathletes alike,” she said. “Lights would improve access for sports-team practices, marching band practices and schoolwide gatherings, not to mention the benefit of having evening home games that working parents can attend.” Burrell noted Progress for PLHS reps were involved in drafting the important Field Use Agreement, which provides guidelines for PLHS field usage. “Our public school students deserve the opportunity to have access to the best facilities our district has to offer, and PLHS is one of the last schools to have stadium lighting,” she said. “We support our public school and its students by supporting the modernization plan and installation of stadium lighting.” The PLHS Whole-Site Modernization and Athletic Facilities Upgrade Project, of which proposed stadium lights is a part, is the first phase of planned long-range improvements at the school that also include demolition of the existing media center/classroom building; construction of a new three-story building, containing a new media center and 20 new classrooms; renovation of the current 200 and 300 buildings; construction of new security features allowing a single path of access to the campus during school hours; a new arched façade along Chatsworth Boulevard that will provide some connection to the school’s beloved original Spanish design; construction of turnouts for school buses to leave more space for vehicles passing in front of the campus; construction of a 150-square-foot main distribution building for better distribution of technology; and installation of overall security improvements.