Temporary lighting for football field eyed

Impact of lights on nearby homes debated

LOWER SALFORD » With the addition last year of two new athletic fields for youth sports, the Lower Salford Township Board of Supervisors is looking at making changes to its lighting ordinance.

The change would be to allow temporary lighting at the fields on Park Avenue during the three-month period when the football team is using the fields, Township Manager Joe Czajkowski said at the board’s Feb. 10 morning work session. The ordinance currently only addresses permanent lighting, he said.

“We would need to amend the ordinance to put in a definition of temporary lighting and the process by which temporary lighting could be installed,” he said.

A permit would be required, he said.

Board member Keith Bergman said he thinks the temporary lighting should only be allowed at the Park Avenue fields.

“I don’t think we want to let this be a blanket throughout the township,” he said.

If approved, it would be the first time the township has allowed lighting at municipally-owned parks or athletic fields.

“I think dust to dawn has served us well for years. I’m not sure it should be changed anywhere,” board member Doug Johnson said.

The difference in this case is that football is played during the time of year when it gets dark earlier, Czajkowski said.

“I understand that, but what I’m saying is I’m not sure we should be making an exception because it’s football,” Johnson said. “It’s still gonna create an inconvenience, even for 90 days, for that residential development right behind it.”

The township spent quite a bit of money to build the fields, which are used for football and lacrosse, board member Chris Canavan said.

“This allows that to be appropriately used,” he said, “and, with regards to the neighbors, while I’m sensitive to the consideration of that, these are relatively limited and they are immediately adjacent to a commercial shopping center that has lighting that is on higher standards and already has a reflective glow.”

There should be a limit on how late the lights are allowed to be on and how many nights per week the lights would be used, he said.

“I think obviously we need to have in the permit language a concept plan of where the lights will be and the direction of the lights so that that’s part of the approved permit so that can be directed away from the adjacent residential,” Canavan said, “which is what they have done, but just so we have some control over that.”

“I think we want some language in there along the lines of minimizing any effect on neighboring properties,” Gifford said.

The temporary lights are only about 10 feet tall, compared to about a 40-foot height for permanent lighting systems, Czajkowski said.

The next step will be for the completed proposed ordinance amendment to come back to the board to schedule a public hearing after which the board will vote on the matter.

“The thing that makes this to me particularly troublesome is the fact that the shopping center is down in the valley,” Johnson said.

“These fields, they may not be a city on a hill,” he said, “but it’s a field on a hill, so those light standards are going to be much more effective in terms of the homeowners than the shopping center is.”