Field fence could cost $400K

Suzie Harrison

City and school district officials hope they are nearing the ninth

inning in resolving simmering complaints about the high school

baseball field fence.

The baseball field ad hoc committee and the Laguna Beach Board of

Education have been meeting with neighbors for months to address the

concerns, which have been causing strife since fall 2004.

Some neighbors have complained that the fence around the field

ruins their views and does not keep balls from breaking car windows.

“We live directly across the street from the baseball field and

had a beautiful panoramic ocean view,” said neighbor Stephen

Crawford. “They installed 30-foot poles above the ridgeline of our

house, so now we have one obstructed view looking through a fence and

a totally obstructed view because of a 10- by 50-foot mesh fence

behind the dugout.”

Crawford said another big problem is that balls are going over the

fence, hitting parked cars on Wilson Street and St. Ann’s Drive.

“My windshield was broken by a ball that hit my car in my

driveway,” Crawford said. “The season has only been two months and

we’re looking at 18 baseballs that have been hit just out of left

field alone. Now it has become a safety issue.”

The committee met April 18 and decided that the answer to the view

problem may be a retractable fence that could be lowered when games

are not in session. Proposed modifications to the fence could cost

around $400,000.

“They need to be innovative and open up their pocketbook and help

the neighbors with view problems and help with the safety factor,”

Crawford said. “Then it’s a win-win situation for everyone.”

District director of facilities and grounds Eric Jetta has issued

a request to look into the viability of replacing the existing

stationary fence with a telescoping retractable pole and fence system

with netting that could be lowered.

A draft of the proposal was distributed at the meeting for the

neighbors to review before the final document was issued this week to

contactors, structural engineers and fence companies.

The retractable system would reduce or perhaps eliminate view

obstructions for homes located on the north side of the baseball

field, Jetta explained.

The four-page proposal details the field’s needs and asks that

firms submit their proposals no later than June 30.

The committee was formed in October to resolve neighbors’

complaints and consists of school board members El Hathaway and

Robert Whalen, City Council representatives Jane Egly and Steve

Dicterow, and field neighbors Stephen and Jamie Crawford, Christian

Feist, David and Michele Nelson, David Smith, Greg Broska, as well as

baseball boosters Dan Bolar and Gary Monroe.

“I think most people agree the new field is an improvement in

terms of playability,” Whalen said. Whalen said the board has been

working diligently to address neighbors’ issues, especially safety

issues.

So far, the district has made a number of modifications in

response to the neighbors’ complaints. It has reduced the height of

the existing football field scoreboard; painted perimeter fence

poles, backstop and dugout poles, the baseball field scoreboard and

support poles to reduce glare; provided vinyl-coated fencing in lieu

of galvanized chain link; installed underground electrical conduit

for future retractable netting and pruned trees at the northwest

corner of the baseball field.