(June 15 2015) -- For months, Long Beach city officials have refused to acknowledge publicly that installing artificial soccer turf in the El Dorado Park West area (east of Studebaker Rd., north of Willow St.) would include installing lights. Fifth district Councilwoman Stacy Mungo (who took office in mid-July 2015) said publicly only that lights "might" be installed. A few years ago, a plan favored by soccer field users to install lights in El Dorado Park West's area south of Willow St. triggered push-back from neighborhood residents and now-former 5th dist. Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske halted the plan.
But now, in an item scheduled to coincide with the June 15 special meeting (6:30 p.m., El Dorado Park Community Center, 2800 Studebaker Rd.) seeking Parks & Rec Commission approval to replace a natural grass soccer field north of Willow St. with crumb rubber (scrap tire pieces) coated with an acrylic substance, Parks & Rec management has agendized an item seeking approval to install lights (and fencing) and explicitly ties this to installing the acrylic coated crumb rubber turf.
[Parks & Rec staff agendizing memo]...Meeting the demand is maximized when a field has lighting for night play and a field barrier to prevent damage, retain the warranty, and contain games to accommodate night and peak time usage. Without these complementary amenities, the durability of the synthetic turf is not maximized.The Department of Parks, Recreation and Marine (Department) recommends low impact field fencing to protect the synthetic turf investment...A four foot fence is recommended...
The Department also recommends field lighting to maximize playable hours...LED lighting is recommended as this technology is the most energy efficient...Further, LED lights can be effectively focused on the playing field and away from surrounding areas, controlling glare to neighborhood residences...
The agendizing memo states that playable hours "can be" restricted to 9:00 p.m. but this isn't binding since hours can always be increased once the lights are installed.
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