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02/11/2020 03:11 PMIn response to overwhelming support from the community, Old Saybrook’s Zoning Commission (ZC) at its Feb. 3 meeting voted unanimously to amend zoning regulations to pave the way for lights to be installed at Old Saybrook High School sports fields.
Efforts to resolve the problem of playing in the dark go back several decades. Thirty-five years ago, in 1985, a group of Old Saybrook residents hoped to memorialize a 17-year-old Old Saybrook High School (OSHS) student who had died seven years before in an accident at Fenwick Golf Course. The Stephen Reney Memorial Fund was established to raise money for the installation of lights at the OSHS playing fields.
But the tentative approval for the project by the zoning enforcement officer (ZEO) stated that the lights would have to conform to the town’s zoning restrictions, which specified that sources of lights located outdoors not be visible from any other lot. When the ZEO determined that the project didn’t meet zoning requirements, he informed the group that the lights would have to come down.
The group sued, lost, appealed, and lost again. The zoning regulations were clear, the court ruled, as well as constitutional.
Grassroots Effort
The issue of lights on the high school playing fields seemed to lie dormant for decades, despite the hardships of limited sports team practice time, the inability to play home games after dark, and the difficulties for parents in getting home from work in time to attend their children’s games.
Meghan Brady is president of Ram Boosters Athletic Club and has two children at OSHS whose athletic endeavors comprise five different sports. Brady grew up in Madison, which has lighted fields, and didn’t understand why OSHS’s sports fields remained in the dark, especially after the town approved $1.2 million in bonding for a new turf field, which was completed in fall 2015.
“That’s just the way it is. We can’t have lights. It’s a zoning issue,” Brady said she was told by other Saybrook residents.
This past summer, with a rising junior and freshman at OSHS, she discussed the issue with other Ram Boosters officers. They decided to speak to First Selectman Carl P. Fortuna, Jr.
Moving Toward the Light
As it turned out, Fortuna’s interests dovetailed with theirs. And at the Sept. 16, 2019 ZC meeting, Mike Mahoney of Musco Sports Lighting demonstrated that lighting technology has changed in 35 years.
“Carl had [Mahoney] do a scale model of the field,” said Richard Hanratty, the father of two athletic OSHS seniors. “He did a demonstration and showed how the lighting is so precise. It just stops black on one side and twilight in the other. Years ago, the technology wasn’t as precise—there was a lot of light spillage. If you lived nearby, you’d get a lot of light on your property.”
“We can put lights up that are full cutoff,” said Fortuna. “If you’re standing on any of the neighboring properties, you can look up at the sky and you will not see the light source. It’s cut off at the property line or before.”
The issue was discussed further at the Nov. 18, 2019 ZC meeting. According to meeting minutes, 26 postcards were mailed to residents on the adjacent Ingham Hill and Donnelley roads. A discussion about specific requirements of the proposed regulations followed, such as limiting the hours during which the fields could be illuminated and using a hard-wired power source. Two neighbors raised concerns, not only about lighting, but about traffic and possible trespassing.
For the Feb. 3 public ZC meeting, Brady, Hanratty, and Diane and Peter Rothman, also parents of OSHS athletes, worked to drum up support among parents and initiated a letter-writing campaign.
“We contacted a lot of people who wanted to speak in favor” of the lights, said Hanratty.
The occupancy of the conference room is limited to 40 people, however, and they were told that if too many people turned up, the meeting would be canceled and rescheduled.
“We were on the phone saying, ‘I’m sorry, I know you’re in support, but please don’t come,’” he said.
According to the meeting minutes, the ZC received 84 letters supporting the zoning changes in advance of the meeting.
The petition for zoning regulation changes was submitted by the Board of Selectman and the Board of Education and requested removal of the prohibition of illuminated playing fields and permission for lighting on properties of 11 acres or more in the Resident A and Industrial I zones owned by the town or Fire Company #1.
Lighting will be restricted to the hours between 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and 7 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and only from March through November. Further language prohibits spillage of the light onto adjacent properties and specifies that light poles must be no higher 80 feet, with break points to prevent their falling within 50 feet of the property line.
In addition to residents, letters of support were submitted by the Economic Development Commission (EDC), the Connecticut Department of Energy & Environmental Protection, and the Lower River Valley Council of Governments, among others.
Nothing will happen at present, however. Fortuna said he is researching the cost and that resident fundraising will be required. Assuming enough money is raised, an application for a special exception permit will have to be put to the ZC; this will require a public hearing.
Should the special exemption permit be approved and residents object, they may appeal the ZC decision in Superior Court, much as the group hoping to honor Stephen Reney did in 1985.
A Different Feeling
Nancy Gatta played field hockey under the guidance of legendary OSHS coach Lorraine S. Splain and graduated in 1989. She didn’t have the opportunity to play under the lights until she went to college, first at UMass and then at SCSU. Having coached field hockey at Mercy and Valley Regional high schools as well as officiating games, she stepped up to coach the OSHS field hockey teams in the fall of 2018, after the former coach left mid-season.
She is also the parent of an OSHS sophomore.
“It’s a different feeling, playing at night, the lights shining on you, a stadium full of people who show up and are cheering for you,” she said. “It makes you play better, makes you feel better pride for your school.”
Gatta said it’s important for student athletes—particularly girls, who can feel that their athletic accomplishments are undervalued—to have that experience on their home turf.
“It would open up a whole new emotion for them to feel the pride of the school...at an event at their school with their lights at their brand-new turf field, with their loved ones, the community and college scouts cheering them on,” Gatta said. “It makes your heart happy.”