Atherton wary of plans to light M-A High football field Atherton wary of plans to light M-A High football field (July 28, 2004)

By Andrea Gemmet
Almanac Staff Writer

Atherton residents who live near Menlo-Atherton High School are not basking in the glow of a plan to install lights on 90-foot-tall poles to illuminate the football field.

A group of residents asked the Atherton City Council at its July 21 meeting to intercede with the school board on their behalf, saying that besides lighting up the night sky of a town that eschews streetlights, the advent of night football games will bring with it noise, parking and safety problems. They presented the council a petition against lighting the field they said was signed by 97 people.

Typically, public schools are immune from local building rules, but Town Attorney Marc Hynes said that, in the case of the football-field lights, the school has to comply with Atherton zoning codes that prohibit such artificial lighting.

However, the school has a large loophole if it wants to install the lights over Atherton's objections. All it takes for the project to go forward is a two-thirds vote by the governing board of the Sequoia Union High School District to exempt the district from Atherton's zoning codes.

"I think we're in trouble," said Councilman Bill Conwell. "These people are obviously going to go for an exemption."

The town's only hope is to shame or cajole school board members into considering the project's effects on Atherton residents, Mr. Conwell said.

"Frankly, I'm shocked this proposal could go so far without (the school) coming to the town to let (us) know about it," said Councilman Alan Carlson.

The council voted to send a letter to all the school board members with its objections to the field-lighting project.

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