Following in the footsteps of neighboring Plainsboro, West Windsor municipal officials will also request that the West Windsor-Plainsboro school district provide a courtesy hearing at the township Planning Board over plans for installation of lights at the district’s two high schools.
A resolution formally requesting the courtesy hearing at the West Windsor Planning Board is on the agenda for Tuesday, January 18.
High School South falls within West Windsor Township (High School North falls within Plainsboro), and residents who live on streets bordering High School South have been the most vocal opponents of the plans.
Plainsboro has issued a similar request — which Township Attorney Michael Herbert said was granted — that the school board provide a courtesy review of the matter, which the board approved last month.
In December, the board approved a memorandum of agreement between the WW-P Board of Education and the WW-P High School South Booster Club to allow the club to preside over the process for installing athletic field lights at both schools.
The drafted memorandum of agreement places all of the responsibility for installing the lights — from obtaining any necessary zoning approvals to financing the athletic field lights — in the hands of the Booster Club.
Since the idea was first discussed last year, district officials have maintained that the district would not spend any of its own money on the installation of the field lights.
The proposed agreement grants the Booster Club the permission to enter school property to install the “improvements,” which consist of “a four-pole lighting system designed to illuminate two football fields (approximately 360 feet by 160 feet at each school) with 50 foot candles.” According to the proposed agreement, the installation would take place in 2012.
The agreement protects the school district against any charges — even for utility costs — with regard to use of the lights.
Sara Spangler Campanella, who lives on Canoe Brook Drive, which along with Nassau Place residents, would be the most adversely affected, asked the council for help during its January 10 meeting.
“The residents who live in close proximity to the field at High Schools South and North have objected from the beginning to the installation of the lights due to myriad concerns regarding the effect that this will have upon our neighborhoods,” she said.
She said residents have pointed out the very close proximity of the Colonial Park development, which existed before South was constructed, and the number of homes in the development to the athletic fields at High School South.
“The lights and noise from any of the games themselves will be nuisance enough, but we will also have to contend with parking issues and other safety concerns, including the possibility of underage drinking and other less than desirable behaviors,” Campanella said. “Students and spectators will use our streets for parking, creating traffic and safety issues. Many will cross Canoe Brook itself at the end of Nassau for entry onto the school grounds.”
She said that Canoe Brook and Nassau were already used by those attending events at High School South.
“We want to be good neighbors, and we have been, but the very delicate balance between our neighborhoods and the high schools are now being disturbed by what should not be acceptable to the township,” Campanella said.
“Most of my neighbors had attended every single [school board] meeting for the previous 18 months,” she said of their efforts to combat the lights. By the time the board voted on the issue in December, residents “knew how it was going to be voted. The school board hadn’t listened to us up to that point. There was nothing left to say.”
Campanella said that in the MOU the district approved with the Booster Club, she and other residents feel the only thing the school district is guaranteed coverage for is utilities. She said there was no mention of how attorneys fees for working on the MOU would be covered.
She also said she was concerned about security at night games. “By and large, they have two alternating police officers that they hire for day games,” she said. “During night games, they generally have 5 or 6. If it’s a traffic officer, the rate goes up. It’s $40 an hour per officer, and it’s a required 4-hour minimum. If traffic is involved, it’s $60 per hour with a four-hour minimum.”
She said she was worried more night games could mean more costs to taxpayers.
Township Councilman Charles Morgan said that one of the township’s policies is to require birming on applications to prevent lights from intruding on residential homes. When the renovations took place at High School South, concerns from residents of Penn Lyle Road that headlights would shine into their homes from the parking lot at South were ignored, he said.
“Light pollution has been a problem,” said Morgan. “In our ordinances, we have rules. The Planning Board has no jurisdiction to impose those rules on school facilities, but I’d like to get our rules enforced, even if it’s voluntary, by the school board.”
Councilwoman Linda Geevers said she wanted to make sure West Windsor had a hearing on it, but also suggested the township should look at trying to address the issue with state legislators to try to get the statutes changed to allow Planning Boards to have some jurisdiction.
“The underlying issue here is they should be good neighbors,” said Councilman George Borek. “Just like everyone has to abide by the rules and regulations,” they should be upheld to those same rules, he said.
He said he went to one of their board meetings in the past to ask them to address the lights issue on Penn Lyle Road, which went unresolved. “They think they’re above everyone else, which I think is totally irresponsible of them,” Borek added. “They want us to always be working with them, but we need them to be working with us and take care of the residents here that have those issues.”
Councilwoman Diane Ciccone also criticized the way the board handled the issue of headlights for residents on Penn Lyle Road, saying a group of residents met with school officials in the parking lot of the high school. The problem is still unresolved.
“There was certainly a lack of any kind of consideration, a lack of any trying to do anything to be a good neighbor, and the same thing is happening to that neighborhood in the back” of the school, she said.
Campanella said she spoke with an architect at the state Department of Education, who told her that if the issue is not related to academics, the Planning Board can object to the plans, at which time, it would go to the state, where the architect can approve or disapprove of the plans. But “if the Planning Board does not object and passes it through, he has to approve it,” she said.
However, township officials still felt they would have no jurisdiction in the matter, although they still wanted a chance to review it and provide input.
John Church, a resident of nearby Princeton Place, said that while he is not adjacent to the high school, he is close enough that he could see the lights.
“It seems to me that even though these private individuals are going to put in these lights and pay the electric bill, it’s still a pollution problem. The lights are going to light up the sky, and we’re going to have more noise, so it’s not just a school issue. It’s a public issue.”
*This article was posted on January 14, 2011.
