Willow Glen Resident

News

Stadium lights to be decided at next school board meeting

By Mayra Flores De Marcotte

Three meetings, a lot of discussion and a little legwork later, San Jose Unified School District has come up with a few creative solutions that will allow 'Friday night lights' to grace local neighborhoods once more.

The district board heard the proposal to install permanent stadium lighting at five of its high schools including Willow Glen at its May 8 meeting, as well as concerns and praise from a crowd that filled the room and spilled into the hallways.

One Leland neighbor summed up the meeting this way: "The concerns brought up are all valid, but the benefits to be had are just as valid."

District officials discussed the California Environmental Quality Act study findings, which concluded that at all but two high schools--Willow Glen and Lincoln--the lights would have no significant impact on their surrounding neighborhoods.

The proposals at Willow Glen and Lincoln received added mitigation due to concerns brought up about traffic and parking.

According to Willow Glen High School assistant principal Jackie Zeller, the school administrators determined the major parking issues occur on Cherry Avenue in the adjacent neighborhood.

The solution to this issue, Zeller said is to close access to Cherry Avenue and leave the entrance to games at the two other sides of campus along Cottle Avenue and Dry Creek Road, where the majority of the on-campus parking is located.

"It's equal walking distance," she said.

Along with moving the entrances, Zeller said the basketball court blacktop area off Cottle Avenue would also serve as premium parking and would be sold off as part of the school's "pride packages" as VIP spaces.

The second issue of concern was moving traffic flow away from the immediate neighborhoods with the help of additional police officers and teachers, Zeller said.

"This issue, regardless of day or night, will be mitigated," she said.

One Willow Glen neighbor, Tom Kramer, applauded the district and school's decision to move traffic out of Cherry Avenue and said this put the problem-ridden street "out of play."

At the core of this project, Kramer said, is bringing together children and parents.

"In order to build a community, you first have to build a strong family," he said. "These lights will help do that."

Although Lincoln is short 40 parking spaces overall, principal Chris Funk said that by moving the school's ticket booth location toward the center of the school, drivers will be forced to park down Dana and Calaveras avenues instead of Olive and Hester avenues, directing traffic farther away from the immediate neighborhoods.

"We are out there trying to meet the needs of our community," Funk said. "It will take practice, but traffic and parking will be mitigated with this plan."

The project consists of the installation of four 80-foot-tall stadium lights at each campus. The infrastructure for the lights is already in place. San Jose High Academy had stadium lights installed during last summer.

The lights will use photometric technology. Each light will shine down into the field instead of across the fields or into a resident's yard.

District officials said the goal of adding stadium lights to the high school campuses is twofold: To offer the community a way to rally behind its local high school and create an opportunity for the high school to have more home games.

The district's school construction manager, Ty Williams, said the lights would be used for only 10 games per school year, including football, soccer, lacrosse and cross-country meets, with the lights going out at 10 p.m.

Along with the 10 events a year, there will be an additional 10 night practices included, with the lights going out at 7 p.m. He pointed out that the impact of the practice lights would be less significant since there would be no crowds or noise associated with them. Outside organizations using the field would not have access to the facility at night.

Should any school breach the usage agreement, Williams said, it would lead to a SJUSD board review and a reduction in the number of events the following year for the specific athletic team.

According to Williams, it will cost $250,000 per site to install stadium night lights. The funds will come from reimbursed state bond money.

CEQUA reports on each school can be found on the district's website, www. sjusd.edu. The San Jose Unified School District Board of Education, 855 Lenzen Ave., will vote on the issue on May 24 at 6:30 p.m. for individual schools.