A lawsuit is pending on behalf of neighbors near Point Loma High School opposed to stadium lights proposed as part of a multi-phase, master-planned modernization of the 91-year-old school’s campus and its athletic facilities.
Disregarding the implied threat of a lawsuit, San Diego Unified School District Board May 24 voted 5-0 in favor of an environmental impact report for proposed campus and athletic facilities upgrades at PLHS. The EIR includes adding new stadium lights.
“It’s anticipated that a lawsuit will be filed this week claiming, under the California Environmental Quaility Act, that the project violates local land-use and zoning laws, and that the project is not exempt from those laws,” said attorney Bob Ottilie, who represents several property owners near PLHS stadium.
Ottilie noted that numerous, as-yet-unidentified plaintiffs in the case are most concerned about one thing.
“My client’s number one objective is to make certain the SDUSD complies with all (environmental and zoning) laws,” he said.
Point Loma High was built in 1925 and the stadium was constructed in 1950.
A grass-roots group of neighbors surrounding the stadium have long lobbied against the EIR’s stadium lights component, arguing it would be a community-character buster creating more traffic, parking, noise and trash problems in an already overcrowded area.
Those neighbors also expressed concern – and wanted assurances – at the May 24 SDUSD board hearing on the EIR that PLHS’ field use policy would not be “commercialized.” They fear the school’s proposal to restrict the number of nighttime events held annually could be changed. PLHS’ open-field policy limits nighttime events to 18, not including playoff games, or the use of the lights to allow completion of games and practices that carry over into darkness.
Opponents also contend that renting the stadium facility to outside interests would financially benefit SDUSD, but not PLHS students, for whom modernization is intended. 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. Those improvements 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.
Noting any proposed change in the existing PLHS open-field policy would have to come back to the SDUSD board for approval, board vice president Richard Barrera May 24 made a successful motion requiring that PLHS neighbors be given ample notice in the future should there ever be any proposed changes to the high school’s open-field policy.
Squabbling groups, Pro Point Loma steering committee, representing more than 800 Loma Portal neighbors, parents and alumni opposed to new lighting, and pro-lights group Progress for Point Loma High School, have been lobbying for and against the controversial athletic field lighting issue via websites, Facebook pages and yard signs for the past couple years.
Opponents insist 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.
One band member May 24 testified that lighting is so poor now at PLHS stadium that parents’ sometimes have to shine their car lights on the field in order for the band to finish their after-school practices.