Marin County OKs Marin Catholic field lights

In a stunning reversal after decades of controversy, Marin supervisors voted unanimously to approve Marin Catholic High School’s field lights plan and to grant the school an exemption from having to undergo an additional environmental review.

Supervisors voted 5 to 0 on Tuesday to uphold the school’s appeal of a county Planning Commission decision in October that denied an exemption from the California Environmental Quality Act and ordered the county to do an environmental review.

“I think it’s our sixth attempt in 30 years,” said Chris Roeder, a member of Marin Catholic’s board of regents, after the three-hour appeal hearing Tuesday before about 150 people at the Marin County Civic Center.

“It feels really good for the kids of Marin County,” Roeder said. “I think it’s the right thing to do. I think it’s courageous of the supervisors, given the opposition. But with the new technology of field lights, I think the time is now.”

Supervisor Katie Rice, who represents the Ross Valley district that includes Marin Catholic, said that, after reviewing all the reports and comments, that she concurred with county staff findings that the lights would not have significant environmental impacts and that the project qualified for an exemption from CEQA.

The other four supervisors also said they could see no reason not to grant the exemption.

“There are very few decisions in the Ross Valley that are not controversial,” Rice, who retires this month from the county board, said later. “This has always been a big one.”

The school had applied at least three times during her tenure, “but they never got all the way to us,” she said.

“I was glad, frankly,” that it reached the board this time, she added. “Even though it was a long, hard hearing, and made for a very long last day, it felt right that I would be the supervisor that ruled on it — and not pass it on to the next,” she said.

John Holzwarth and Brendan Fogarty, longtime opponents of the field lights plan, could not immediately be reached for comment on Wednesday. Both are involved in Preserve Ross Valley, a group formed to oppose the project.

The project calls for the Kentfield high school to install four 80-foot-tall light poles at its stadium off Sir Francis Drake Boulevard at Bon Air Road.

Since May, when the current application for design review approval on the lights system was submitted, hundreds of neighbors in Greenbrae and Kentfield have testified publicly and in written comments and reports warning the lights would exacerbate existing noise, traffic and light glare at their homes.

“I live on a hill near the school,” said Zigmund Rubel, one of about 30 people to comment at Tuesday’s hearing. “I want to voice my concerns and request a full CEQA study.”

Fay Amerson of Greenbrae said she was concerned about environmental impacts to wildlife and the ecosystem at nearby Corte Madera Creek.

“The creek is a public investment,” she said. “I want to ensure this application does not impact this resource.”

Hundreds of people have also testified and submitted letters of support for the project. The school says the lights are needed to ease a increasing lack of athletic field space for a growing number of sports teams.

Supporters also emphasize the positive impact on youth mental health by giving students more access to exercise and playing sports, as well as the potential camaraderie among students and with the neighborhood families.

“This would be a blessing for the community around the school to be able to bring people together,” said Erik Schmitz, a teacher at Marin Catholic who lives in Novato, during public comment on Tuesday. Schmitz said he has witnessed the positive neighborhood partnership now in place since San Marin High School has installed field lights after a protracted and divisive legal battle.

Most at issue are the 10 Friday nights during fall and winter when the lights would allow Marin Catholic to host varsity football games until about 9:15 p.m., with the lights off completely at 9:30 p.m.

During the week, the lights would be on at half-power until 7:15 p.m. for practices for 45 days out of the year, and 25 days for lighted practices ending at 9:15 p.m. the latter necessary during the overlapping sports team seasons. For 55 days, there would be lighted games ending at 8:15 p.m.

The lighting system would not be operated on Sundays or in the mornings. No music or air horns will be allowed at the games.

The school will post all the games and practices schedules on a web page on the school website and will conduct two meetings annually with the neighborhood to discuss concerns. Other provisions of the school’s “good neighbor policy” include a 24/7 hotline for complaints and questions.

“My goal is to make the Board of Supervisors proud,” Tim Navone, the school president, said after the vote. “I really want us to show what kind of community we are.”

Navone said he and the whole Marin Catholic community “just want to be great neighbors, and we want to continue to be great neighbors. It’s really all about the youth.”

Navone said non-athletic-related teachers at the school are among the most supportive of the lights because it means student athletes will not have to leave school early to practice or play games during daytime hours.

“They’re so happy because kids are not missing class,” he said of the teachers.

The supervisors ordered the lights use schedule, and the school’s entire “good neighbor policy,” added to their approval resolution on Tuesday, making the conditions enforceable by the Marin County Community Development Agency.

The good neighbor policy also will be added to the light system permit, said Sarah Jones, director of the county’s Community Development Agency.

“We’re writing it directly into the permit requirement,” Jones said. “That’s putting in an extra level of accountability. It’s giving us proactive tools for monitoring the use of lights, not just waiting for someone to call us with a complaint.”

Jones said the added monitoring duties “will give an increased accountability and effectiveness to make sure things are happening as the board approved them to be.”

Rice, who said during the hearing she has “empathy for all sides” of the issue, said such rulings come with the territory of being a county supervisor.

“This is what this job is all about,” she said later. “It’s intense. The decisions are close to the community that you live in. It’s hard, because you’re always disappointing somebody at the same time that you make someone else happy — and they’re your neighbors.”