The California Coastal Commission (CCC) postponed a decision Wednesday on Pepperdine University’s request to install six 80-foot stadium lights on one of its recreational fields.
A decision on the lights can be made no later than the Commission’s October meeting, according to coastal program analyst Melanie Faust. The CCC gathered this week in Eureka, Calif. for its monthly meeting.
Coastal staff is recommending against the installation, arguing that the lights would go up in an environmentally sensitive habitat and further harm surrounding chaparral.
Faust said Pepperdine requested the delay on a decision so that it could have more time to respond to findings reported by Coastal Commission staff, in which they recommend the CCC reject a plan for the lights.
Staffers say the proposal, which would replace four existing 28-foot fixtures, would harm a nearby environmentally sensitive habitat area (ESHA). But university officials have argued the lights are actually less harmful to the environment than the existing fixtures, and are crucial to providing future recreational opportunities to students.
“The [new] lights were designed according to the most stringent dark sky principles and meet best management practices to minimize sky glow,” Rhiannon Bailard, associate vice president for Pepperdine’s Center of Sustainability, recently wrote in an email to The Malibu Times. “It seems counterintuitive but the higher the light pole, the less impactful the light as the increased height allows for steeper aiming resulting in the light going only where you want it.”
The next Coastal Commission meeting is set for Oct. 9-11 in San Diego.