Panel to Limit Play Hours on 2 Fields

In a compromise with neighborhood residents, the Planning Commission this week banned Sunday softball on two lighted fields that will be added to a community park.

To address the concerns of about a dozen neighbors over possible noise and light problems, the commissioners also limited hours of play during the rest of the week at the proposed six-acre sports facility at Oso Viejo Community Park.

The commissioners also voted 4 to 0 to approve the park expansion, saying that more softball and soccer fields are badly needed.

“We won’t please everyone with this decision,” Commissioner Sunnie Castner said. “But the community got the ball fields, and I think we mitigated the needs of the surrounding neighborhood.”

The 85-acre Oso Viejo Community Park, at La Paz Road near Marguerite Parkway, already has a sports complex with four lighted baseball diamonds and three soccer fields, along with the Mission Viejo Community and Senior Center.

Residents of an apartment complex bordering the 6-acre expansion site complained about the glare coming from the lights and noise from the already-established sports fields. In the compromise, commissioners said they would order the lighting to include glare deflectors.

They also eliminated Sunday play on the proposed diamonds and curfews on other nights will begin at 9 p.m. instead of 11 p.m.

The restrictions will apply only to the proposed new fields in Oso Viejo Community Park.