Let’s be sure we understand all the facts on lighting the stadium – including sworn testimony in the Zoning Board of Appeals hearing – before endorsing a big step that would wear away at the fabric of our community and undermine the zoning code that keeps Oak Park an attractive place to live for all of us.
Not just a few Friday nights
The high school plans to use the stadium lights, loudspeakers, and horns for at least 15 regular Friday night games, and also for midweek night games. The proposal includes two Friday nights in the fall for field hockey and two for boys soccer as well as three or four regular season football games, plus playoff games–and in the spring, two Friday night stadium games each for boys lacrosse, girls lacrosse, and girls soccer. And the lights would also be on for practices and mid-week games every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday until at least 8 p.m. into November, and from early March until the season ends. Even with no outside groups using the stadium lights, that adds up to lights, noise, and increased traffic potentially up to 95 nights a year.
Mercury vapor lights
Tall, high-intensity mercury vapor lights are not appropriate in densely populated residential neighborhoods. That fact has been recognized by land use planners, schools that will not install field lights (including Glenbard West in our conference), zoning boards, and courts. The densely populated residential neighborhood that lies as close as 27 yards from the goalpost is simply not an appropriate place for a huge light installation. In addition, the Frank Lloyd Wright Historic District in which the field lies, is subject to special protections in the Village of Oak Park Zoning Code. Neighbors live in harmony with the high school’s intense use of its stadium field seven days a week during the daylight hours, and have been remarkably accommodating about the south field lights. At night, the streets surrounding the field are quiet, dark, and peaceful, like most Oak Park residential streets. That has been the situation since the stadium was built in the 1920s. Lights, night games, and evening practices up to 95 nights a year would disrupt the balance for the many, many families who live within earshot of the field.
Athletic participation
OPRF High School sponsors 28 sports; six of them require turf field space. The athletic department testified that if the stadium field were lighted, no additional teams would be added, no more athletes supported, no more games played, and no more practices held. The absence of lights does not deprive any student of the opportunity to participate in athletics.
Busing students to off-site practice sites, including Taylor Park, would continue even if the stadium were lighted. Lighting the stadium would provide only one additional on-site practice slot. In our landlocked community with thriving youth soccer and football, field space is coveted, but stadium lights won’t solve the problem.
The south field across the street from the high school on Lake Street, acquired in 2002, is larger than the stadium field, and can accommodate two field hockey games, soccer games, or four team practices. The lights at the south field shine until 8 p.m. every fall and spring weekday evening, even in rain, since the artificial turf is playable in all weather.
Historic preservation
The Historic Preservation Commission is empowered by village ordinance to advise the zoning board whenever zoning variances that affect historic districts are sought. After carefully considering the benefits and drawbacks to the high school’s proposal to install lights, the Historic Preservation Commission decided “the installation of the stadium lights will negatively impact the surrounding neighborhood.”
Brighter than the south field lights
The same company that installed the south field lights would install 4 new light standards, between 88 and 100 feet tall, the same height as the south field lights. The illumination of the stadium field would be brighter, up to 67 lumens compared with 49 lumens on the south field. Glare from the south field lights already can be seen from many blocks away. Adding four more light towers would create an enormous halo effect as light reflects off the fields, dust and moisture in the air.
Game noise nuisance
Afternoon football games are attended by up to 2,000 people, and evening games would be expected to attract up to 2,500. The average noise level from fans, players, whistles, horns, marching band, and the loudspeaker over the course of a 2½- to 3-hour football game is so loud that normal conversation is impossible in the homes near the field. In fact, the average decibel level during a game, measured near homes on Linden Avenue, is much higher than the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency regulations allow for most activities. The concrete stadium and three-story walls of the high school channel sound north and west. This level of noise is tolerated during Saturday afternoons. But at night, with lower background noise and an expectation of quiet after dark, the noise would seem even louder. Friday night football could begin with a game at 5 p.m., a second game at 7:30 p.m. and continue until at least 10 p.m., interfering with young children’s bedtimes.
Reconsidering
At the time the school board voted 4-3 to ask the village for a variance to install stadium lights, it did not have the benefit of a traffic and parking study, which it later authorized, nor did it have any expert analysis of noise impact, or impact on the historic district. Some said that their decision was based solely on the high school’s interests, and the interests of the neighbors would be considered when the proposal went before the village. Expert opinion is now available. The District 200 board should reconsider its decision in light of current information about the impact of stadium lights on the neighborhood.
APRIL, or the Alliance to Preserve Residential Integrity and Livability, is a nonprofit corporation that has received donations from over 50 households. Over 175 people from the immediate neighborhood have signed a petition opposing installation of lights in the stadium, and many other people outside the neighborhood think the lights are a bad idea, for a variety of reasons.
There are limits to a residential neighborhood’s capacity to absorb additional traffic, parking, light, and noise. Whether it is the number of weeks the Farmers’ Market will run, or lights at Keystone Park and Concordia, zoning restrictions preserve both the value of our property and our sense of community. In order to approve a variance to the zoning code, the ZBA must find that the applicant has satisfied each and every one of seven conditions. If it finds that the high school has not shown hardship, or that the proposed lights will be detrimental to the public welfare, or injurious to the property surrounding the field, or will substantially increase night-time traffic congestion and exacerbate parking problems, or will alter the essential character of the neighborhood, or will violate the spirit and intent of the zoning ordinance, it should not approve the high school’s variance request.
We welcome a rebuttal from the high school or the Huskie Boosters Club.
