The California Coastal Commission approves field lights at Malibu High School. The school district must now secure funding and permits to install the lights.
By Knowles Adkisson / The Malibu Times
The California Coastal Commission last week unanimously approved an amendment to the City of Malibu’s Local Coastal Program (LCP) that allows for limited use of field lights at night on the main sports field at Malibu High School.
The approval came despite opposition from more than 50 community members, who say night lights at the high school would disturb wildlife, including migrating birds, and ruin the rural ambiance of the nearby area.
The amendment allows lights to be used for a maximum of three nights per week until 7:30 p.m., between the first Sunday in November and the second Sunday in March. To accommodate night sports games, the lights may be used until 10:30 p.m. for up to 18 nights between Sept. 1 and May 31. However, the late night lights may not be used on consecutive nights and never more than twice in one calendar week. The lights may not be used at all between June 1 and Aug. 31.
The school district must now address the challenge of fundraising for permanent lights, and apply to the City of Malibu for a coastal development permit to build them and a conditional use permit to operate them. Those approvals are expected to be formalities [Editor’s note: a previous version of this story incorrectly stated that the school district would have to apply for a coastal development permit from the Coastal Commission].
From 2003 to 2009, the school district had operated temporary night lighting at Malibu High School’s main sports field. That operation violated a special condition imposed when the school district applied for a coastal development permit for various improvements to the high school campus in 2000, which prohibited field lighting in order to protect nearby scenic resources and native wildlife from light disturbance.
In 2009, the city applied for an amendment to its LCP, which Coastal Commission staff wrote in 2003 and included heavy restrictions on light pollution, to allow limited night lighting. The commission rejected that proposal despite its staff’s recommendations to approve it. Football, soccer and lacrosse games at the school have since been played during daylight hours.
More than 450 letters in support of the lights and more than 50 letters opposing them were submitted prior to the Coastal Commission’s approval. Coastal staff itself supported the proposal.
“We simply do not believe the limited lighting we are recommending in this case will have any significant adverse impacts on coastal resources or visual impacts,” Coastal Commission Deputy Director Jack Ainsworth said at the Wednesday meeting.
Ainsworth acknowledged the lights would create sky glow when operated at night, visible from public lands and trails north of the field and Zuma Beach to the south. It could also potentially disrupt migrating birds, which can become confused and drawn off course by artificial lights, causing them to crash or become exhausted.
But staff concluded that light shielding technology could limit excess light by pointing it downward, and an avian monitoring study to track the impact of the lights on migrating birds would be used to monitor any negative side effects.
Opponents, primarily from a group called the Malibu Dark Skies Committee, disagreed.
“If you approve lights in Malibu, you’re going to dramatically change the character of this rural area,” Steve Uhring, of the Malibu Dark Skies Committee, said at the meeting.
Malibu Mayor Pro Tem Laura Rosenthal, who favors the lights, countered at the meeting that neither the city nor the school district had received complaints about dead birds or complaints related to sky glow in the past.
“Where were the people complaining about the loss of wildlife and dark skies during the seven years that the high school had temporary lights?” Rosenthal said. “Nobody complained.”
Rosenthal and other supporters said it was important to have games later than 3 p.m. so parents who work out of town could get back to see their children play. They also argued that Friday night football games were an important community event for Malibu, where there are few places for large numbers of people to gather.
Uhring and other opponents cited a 1994 letter sent to Malibu Park residents by former Malibu High Principal Mike Matthews, in which he stated the sports field would not require lighting. Current Principal Mark Kelly said at the meeting that the needs of the school “have evolved” since then.
Despite some misgivings, the 12-member commission voted unanimously to pass the lights.
“It’s very important that the local people in Malibu do have some say over their destiny,” Commissioner Dayna Bochco said in conclusion. “No one knows better than they do what is the nature of their community.”