School Board Expected To Greenlight Stadium Light Project Environmental Report

The Mount Diablo Unified School District Board of Education is expected to approve the final environmental impact report on Wednesday for a project that would upgrade the football field at Ygnacio Valley High School, a fact that does not please nearby residents.

“It’s not the high school. Those kids only play six games per year,” said Velda Arnold, who can see the bleachers from her dining room.

"It’s that the state mandates they have to rent out the field to any Tom, Dick, or Harry that wants to use it,” Arnold told Patch.

The project originally proposed in 2011 would have installed permanent lights on the football field, a sound wall, and a Public Address system. 

Residents nearby say the project has inflated to include a concession stand, bathrooms, and a press box, all funded by the Measure C bond. Voters of M. Diablo Unified School District approved the $348 million bond in June 2010. Some residents told Patch they voted for that bond under the impression that it would be used to repair aging schools. They say it is now being used to reduce the quality of their lives. 

The project additions increased the construction time frame from four months to six months, according to comments on the Draft Environmental Impact Report, which will also extend the amount of time that neighbors have to hear construction noise.

“Exposure to such high levels of noise is well documented to have both physiological and psychological negative impacts on human beings...This is recognized in the EIR, which makes the claim that is only ‘temporary.’  Six days a week for six months is hardly ‘temporary’ exposure given that many of the residents are retirees who do not have the daily escape route of outside employment,” Arnold wrote in a public letter to Mitchell Stark, Project Manager.

The School Board will meet to discuss this environmental impact report at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday Sept. 25, 2013.

To be continued...