4 fields chosen for new lights

Temporary lights will be added to three fields at Costa Mesa’s Farm Sports Complex and a field at Davis Elementary School, but the city still won’t quite be able to meet demand for sports practice space during the shorter days of winter.

The city parks and recreation commission on Wednesday voted, 4-1, in favor of the temporary-light plan, with commission chairwoman Wendy Leece dissenting. It was a last-minute compromise, replacing a plan that included lighting two fields at the Balearic Community Center.

About a dozen residents who live near the center argued vigorously that lighting the fields will worsen traffic, noise and other disturbances.

Jan Ryan, who lives on Boa Vista Drive, complained of getting trapped in her driveway and being unable to have guests during sports matches because of parking problems.

“I might as well live on the Newport peninsula on the Fourth of July because that’s the kind of traffic we have here,” she said. “If this goes through, the damage to my property value is more than those lights are going to cost.”

One saving grace was that the Newport-Mesa school district agreed to let the city use the Davis field, despite an earlier ban on portable lights at schools.

The city has been struggling with an athletic field shortage for several years, as youth sports leagues have grown and some fields have been taken out of commission for various reasons.

A recent agreement with the state to create fields at Fairview Developmental Center won’t proceed as fast as expected, so those new fields won’t be ready until early 2007.

Countering the complaints of Balearic residents, American Youth Soccer Assn. commissioner John Rubright pointed out that he lives in the city and pays taxes too.

“I deserve to have a place to have my kids play, and the 1,400 kids I represent” in AYSO, he said.

Under the commission’s lighting plan, the Davis field and one of the Farm fields will have light until 8 p.m., and the other two Farm fields will be lighted until 9 p.m. All the fields will be only for youth sports practices.

Leece said she hopes the city discusses using more school district fields.

The district will review the use of the Davis field in December. The temporary lights at the Farm will allow practices until spring.