A proposal to regulate stadium lighting in Kalamazoo took a step forward Monday.

After hearing feedback from nearly a dozen members of the public in its first reading of the draft ordinance, the Kalamazoo City Commission scheduled a public hearing for its regular business meeting Dec. 21.

The ordinance proposes regulations for outdoor sports stadiums and recreation facilities. The city currently regulates outside lighting in parking lots and buildings that are 25 feet tall or shorter, but has no regulations for outdoor sports stadiums, recreation facilities or entertainment venues.

The draft ordinance addresses the positioning of lights, how many times a year the lights can be used and how late into the evening the lights can be used, among other regulations. It requires applicants to apply for a special use permit to use stadium lights.

City staff has worked with a committee of residents on the proposed ordinance, and also has attended several neighborhood meetings and held three community meetings.

Laura Lam, director of the city's community planning and development department, said the residents and city staff work group did not reach consensus as a whole, but that city staff tried to find a "balanced and reasonable" approach to the ordinance and tried to include a variety of provisions.

City staff is looking to replace a placeholder agreement between Kalamazoo College and the city made in 2012 approved with the college's athletic field renovations that stated K-College could light its soccer field up to 60 times per year and could light its football field up to 20 times a year until the stadium lighting ordinance is in place. The college's master plan and athletic fields renovation proved to be contentious with residents in the adjoining West Main Hill neighborhood.

As written, the ordinance would not allow Kalamazoo Christian High School to put up lights on its football field, because it is within 200 feet of a home. Kalamazoo Christian High School in 2009 applied to light its field and drew strong opposition from residents in the Winchell neighborhood.

As written, the draft ordinance requires:

• • Lights to be shielded with opaque hoods that would direct illumination at no greater than a 45 degree angle.
• • The location of the poles to be a distance that is at least equal to the height of the pole to a property line, so if a pole falls it would not fall onto a neighbor's property.
• • Lights on fields for educational use, like at Kalamazoo College, to be turned on no earlier than 3 p.m. and to be turned off by 8:30 p.m. on all days except if there is a game on a Friday or Saturday. Then, the lights would have to be turned off by 10:30 p.m. Lights on fields that aren't in educational use zones would be able to be turned on no earlier than 3 p.m. and turned off no later than 10:30 p.m. every day.
• • Stadium light use would be based on how far away the field is from the nearest residence. For example, a field for educational use that is between 201 and 500 feet from a residence would be allowed to be used two times a year for games and 20 times a year for practices, while an educational use field 1,251 feet or more away would have unlimited use throughout the year.
• • Lighting intensity to follow a national standard set up by the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America, which specifies acceptable lighting levels for various sports.
• • The school or entity that owns the stadium to provide the city a schedule of planned light usage on an annual basis, which the city would provide to neighboring residents.
   

Several of the residents who spoke Monday urged city commissioners to table the ordinance for now. West Main Hill resident Maureen Cartmill said fewer people attended the city's public meetings on the ordinance later in the process because residents had "lost heart" that they could make an impact.

Cartmill said it's not just about football lights, but that K-College's soccer field lights light up the end of her street and shine into her living room.

Cartmill called the proposal "Waldo Stadium without the walls within 200 feet of your front door or the back of your house. That's a great burden and a lot of compromise to come to."

Kalamazoo College officials told commissioners that the "bare minimum" the college needs is 20 nights where athletes can practice until 10:30 p.m. or 30 nights where athletes can practice until 8:30 p.m.

Kate Worster, K-College's vice president of marketing and communication, told commissioners other schools in K-College's conference have lighted football fields without the restrictions the city is proposing, and those colleges, too, are within residential districts.

Worster said the college has participated in the ordinance process in good faith.

"What is being proposed meets our bare minimum, our bottom line, that's it," Worster said. "This ordinance as written places K's student athletes at a competitive disadvantage."

But other residents said the ordinance seems to be catering to K-College's interests. Peter Kushner, president of the Oakland Drive-Winchell Neighborhood Association, said he's not sure the ordinance serves his neighborhood or other neighborhoods like the Northside neighborhood.

"What Kalamazoo College wants is important, but all of the citizens, the 75,000-plus, what they want is important," Kushner said. "Let's take a step back. There's still many unanswered questions on specific issues."

After more than an hour of comment, commissioners decided to move forward with setting the public hearing.

"What I'm hearing is we have young people in our comm who want to practice more," said new Commissioner Shannon Sykes. "I definitely think that is something that is a real part of this conversation, when we're talking about whether they can have some extra nights to practice."

Sykes said K-College seems to be giving up "quite a bit" in the compromise.

Vice Mayor Don Cooney called the ordinance "the best that we can do"

"I believe that this is a proposal that we could live with," Cooney said. "Nobody gets everything they want, but I think it's a proposal we can live with and it's a reasonable compromise, and I support it."

Commissioners will hold a public hearing on the stadium lighting ordinance at their regular business meeting at 7 p.m. Monday, Dec. 21, in city commission chambers at Kalamazoo City Hall, 241 W. South St.

 

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