Marin Catholic puts football lights on hold in Kentfield

Marin Catholic High School in Kentfield will hold off ? for now, at least ? on plans to install lights at its football field, even as it presses ahead with proposed upgrades to the bleachers and a new sound system.

The private high school is seeking county approval for a new, 1,242-seat grandstand with a concession stand, bathrooms, weight room and locker rooms underneath, in addition to an upgraded sound system. The project would not increase the stadium's capacity, but it would provide access for the disabled and replace a set of aging bleachers that were moved to Marin Catholic from College of Marin in the 1960s.

The original application also included plans for lights that would be used 10 nights per year.

In October, the county's Community Development Agency told Marin Catholic a special permit may be necessary for the lights, and it asked for additional information including a scientific study of the lighting impacts. In response, the school filed a new application without the lights, which had also drawn opposition from dozens of neighbors.

Marin Catholic President Tim Navone said the school may revisit lights later, but it set them aside for now to avoid delaying the rest of the project.

"Our priority is to get the stadium bleacher complex plans underway," he said.

Friday night football games are a tradition in many communities but are rare in Marin County, where only San Rafael and Tomales high schools

have lighted fields. In 2009, the Novato Unified School District considered installing lights at its two main high schools but abandoned the plan amid opposition from neighbors.

Navone said lights would boost attendance at Marin Catholic games by moving them out of the Saturday afternoon time slot, when they compete with many other sporting events and activities.

The Marin Catholic football team, which lost the Division III state championship this past weekend, filled its stadium to capacity for the most recent home game but typical crowds are much smaller, Navone said.

"We don't have the ability to pull our full community together," he said.

The Kentfield Planning Advisory Board recommended approval of the project without lights on Wednesday, and the school is now awaiting a response from county planners.

If the school proposes lights in the future it is likely to meet at least some resistance from neighbors.

In a letter signed by several dozen neighbors in October, Kentfield residents John and Sarah Holzwarth said lights at Marin Catholic would hurt the quality of life in the neighborhood. The impacts would not only include the light but also increased noise and traffic at night, they said.

"The prospect of evening use and night football games is disruptive to our community and not consistent with the residential nature of the area," they wrote in the letter.

Marin County Supervisor Katie Rice said the lights and related noise and traffic would affect the neighborhood, but the impacts could be reduced through limits on the number of games and other conditions.

"I think if there is a finite number of events, the community is willing to support it," she said of the lights.

Contact Will Jason via email at wjason@marinij.com or via Twitter at http://twitter.com/willjason

Source: http://www.marinij.com/rosskentfieldgreenbrae/ci_22210806/marin-catholic-puts-football-lights-hold-kentfield?source=rss_emailed

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