Polo Field, Golden Gate Park, SF, looking East
Correction (May 25, 2012): The previous version of this article stated that the project would install “60″ light standards. It should have said “60-foot-tall” light standards.
Update (May 9, 2012): The Final Comments and Responses for the Environmental Impact Report have been released and are available at http://sfplanning.org/index.aspx?page=1828. The hearing is now scheduled for Thu., May 24.
On Thu., May 17 24, San Francisco’s Planning Commission and Recreation and Park Commission could approve turning seven acres of Golden Gate Park into an artificially turfed sports complex (see March 29 article). The project would install 60-foot-tall light standards with sports lights–150,000 watts worth–right across the Great Highway from Ocean Beach. The parking lot would be expanded by 33%, and seating would be installed for over 1,000 spectators.
On May 17 the commissions are to hold a joint hearing on the Final Comments and Responses for the Environmental Impact Report for the Beach Chalet Athletic Fields (to be published on May 9). If they certify the EIR and approve the project, it is likely that SF Ocean Edge and other organizations will appeal that decision to the Board of Supervisors. That appeal would take place in June and would also involve a public hearing.
WhatYouCanDo
Now is the time to speak out against this project. To send an e-mail to Mayor Ed Lee, the Board of Supervisors, the Planning Commission, and the Recreation and Park Commission, go to http://action.sierraclub.org/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&id=8629. Tell them to keep real grass and allow no sports lights in Golden Gate Park.
For more up-to-date information and to request e-mail alerts, go to the web site of SF Ocean Edge at www.sfoceanedge.org.
Kathy Howard, SF Ocean Edge
View Conservation Issues in a larger map
Please keep real grass and allow no sports lights in Golden Gate Park! Golden Gate Park is the nearest thing we have to wild open space. As a city we need this desperately.
I have been a loyal member of the SF Bay Chapter and national organization for decades and I couldn’t disagree more with the chapter’s position on this issue. Beach Chalet is currently a sports field that is unsafe and closed half of the year due to poor maintenance. When it’s open there is little place to park causing traffic and congestion on the surrounding roads, and there is almost no place for fans to sit and watch, leading to trampling and degredation of the landscaping surrounding the fields. (And by the way, the lovely photo of the grassy area at GG Park shown on the web site isn’t the Beach Chalet field, it’s the Polo Fields.) As City Fields, the organization sponsoring this renovation project, notes:
These gopher-hole riddled and fenced fields are closed to the public more than 50% of the time and are only available by paid reservation. As a result, San Francisco doesn’t have enough sports fields for all the kids who want to play and some children are turned away.
We believe our city can do better. With Rec/Park, we have a plan to install synthetic turf and lights, making the fields safer, more inviting, and open more often. …It is unfortunate that a small group of people who don’t even use the fields are trying to preserve this broken facility at the expense of the kids who actually play on them day in and day out.
If you are a Sierra Club member and you support the Beach Chalet renovation project, please contact the local chapter leadership–they need to hear from all of their members, not just a vocal minority who promote “real grass” over the needs of the thousands of kids who play on this field (or who can’t because it’s not open so much of the year.) There are many other higher priority, more worthwhile efforts that the local chapter could spend it’s time and resources on.
Kids need a place to play, but kids also need to learn to appreciate and respect nature.
The real issue here is preserving habitat and the beauty of Golden Gate Park for everyone to enjoy, whether young or old, active or not so active. The proposed project introduces a paved, urban, hard-edged, project into a soft-edged grassy area. The artificial turf is the environmental equivalent of paving the area with asphalt. Habitat will be lost. Beach Chalet is one of the few major open, grassy areas in the Park. Golden Gate Park is prime parkland, and it must be protected for everyone. That is the essence of Golden Gate Park – multi-use areas that are enjoyed by everyone during the day, but at night, they belong to nature.
It is unfortunate that Rec and Park has been spending a lot of money on highly-paid management and PR people and not paying attention to maintenance. We encourage the soccer leagues to band together and to demand prime, natural grass playing fields from Rec and Park. But to pave over Beach Chalet is to reward the Department for their poor setting of priorities.
Yes, people do drive to Beach Chalet – why is a large soccer complex being built in an area of San Francisco that everyone has to drive to it? San Francisco is supposed to be a transit-first City.
The 150,000 watts of night lighting will have an impact on all wildlife and on bird migration, on nesting patterns and on foraging. It’s not great for people either! It will ruin the experience of sunset at the beach, strolling on the Promenade as darkness falls in the evening, and sitting by the fire rings. There is a real difference between looking back at a dark skyline with only the outline of the trees and the ghostly windmills, and looking at ten – 60 foot light standards full of sports lighting. In the fog, the light will bounce off of the clouds and be much, much brighter. There is more information and expert testimony about this in our appeal documents, available through our website. (www.sfoceanedge.org)
Our proposal is to renovate the grass fields at Beach Chalet with new sub-surface drainage, improved soil structure, state of the art irrigation, gopher controls, natural grass and no night lighting, and to use the rest of the funding to fix up other fields for kids all over San Francisco. This helps kids have a place to play and protects the beauty and habitat of Golden Gate Park for everyone. The money for this project can and should be used in other locations, but there is only one Golden Gate Park.
Many organizations and individuals have joined with us to find a compromise. This includes not only environmental organizations but also neighborhood groups and thousands of individuals.
Join with us to protect Golden Gate Park! Please put July 10, 2012 on your calendar to come to the Appeal hearing at the BOS. And contact us for more information.