Since State College Area School District was granted a zoning text amendment three years ago to allow for 70-foot lights on the high school’s South Track field, residents of the nearby Greentree neighborhood say light and sound on a few evenings each week during the fall have become a serious disturbance.
School district officials, meanwhile, say using the lighted field, particularly for marching band practice on 20 nights between late August and late October, is a logistical necessity and that the high school property is incorrectly zoned to begin with.
And soon State College Borough Council will need to make a decision on when (or if) the lights can be used for at least the next year.
The operational agreement between the borough and school district that is required as a condition of the zoning amendment is due to renew on July 6. If either party wants to terminate the agreement, they must give notice by April 6. They can also mutually amend the agreement.
In part, the current agreement allows the marching band to practice under the lights twice a week — until 8 p.m. on Monday and 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday, with lights dimmed and then extinguished as soon as possible. All other events must end by 9 p.m.
Over the course of two work sessions last week, district officials and Greentree residents who are part of the South Track Concerns Committee laid out their cases and what they want to happen.
The Concerns Committee wants to limit band practice using lights at the field to 8 p.m. one night a week and for the agreement to end in three years, after which no events of any kind would be permitted after 8 p.m.
“To be clear, we’re supporters of the band. My daughter is a member of the marching band and there are several other aspiring musicians within the neighborhood who hope to be joining the marching band in the future,” Greentree resident Amy English said. “The fact of the matter is that 70-foot lighting and marching band practice simply do not belong in a residential neighborhood.”
Borough staff have proposed allowing the band to use the lights until 8 p.m. two nights a week.
District officials want the band to be able to use the lights until at least 8:45 p.m. two nights a week for the next year and in the long-term ultimately move toward rezoning the property. Lights of that kind in non-residential areas can be illuminated until 11 p.m. without operating agreements.
The marching band and football team, which practices immediately before the band, have already lost practice time under the current agreement, district representatives told borough council.
“Ending at 8 both nights would further decrease practice time and programming,” Randy Brown, SCASD operations and finance officer said.
“Our goal is to have as much time with the lights on as possible, not only for the school community but the community at large.”
History
The marching band had practiced for decades on the parking lot in front of the old high school building, but when the new State High was constructed, that lot no longer existed.
The South Track, meanwhile, is located in R-3B zoning, which allows for lights of up to 25 feet. Seeking to add a lighted field for the band to practice near where its equipment is stored and for sports team practices and competitions, including State High football games in 2019 while Memorial Field renovations were ongoing, the district requested a zoning text amendment in late 2018 to allow for lights of up to 70 feet.
Shorter light standards would have been insufficient for sports lighting, while the 70-foot lights also could be better directed to prevent light from bleeding into the neighborhood, district planners said at the time.
During months of discussion, Greentree residents voiced concerns about nuisance light, noise and traffic issues that would accompany the addition of the lights.
In May 2019, borough council approved the amendment, under conditions of an operating agreement, by a 4-3 vote. The operating agreement approved in August of that year allowed for the band to practice until 9 p.m. and other events to go until 9 p.m., with the understanding that some competitions would run over time and lights would be extinguished as soon as possible. It also prohibits non-SCASD organizations from using the lights.
The agreement was amended in 2020 to limit the band to using the lights until 8 p.m. on Mondays and 8:30 p.m. on Wednesdays.
An advisory committee of borough, school district and neighborhood representatives was formed to address issues that may arise, and the neighborhood formed its own South Track Concerns Committee. Throughout 2021 and early this year, they’ve met to discuss revisions that would mitigate the impact of the track use while still meeting the school district’s needs, but have not been able to reach an agreement.
“A very unique and very difficult problem”
Many residents purchased homes in the Greentree neighborhood either before the referendum that enabled construction of the new high school on its existing property or before the district indicated it wanted to add lights to the field, English said.
The facility’s residential zoning, she added, gave residents a sense of security that “the quality of life would be maintained for the long term.”
“Prior to the installation of the lights in 2019, we found SCASD to be a very fine neighbor,” she said.
The daytime use of the South Track and marching band practices in the parking lot were never a problem.
“That’s what we signed up for,” she said. “What we didn’t sign up for was to live under the bright lights, as some families now do. We also didn’t sign up to hear the marching band, 130 members strong, playing within a couple hundred feet of our homes. We didn’t expect to hear every instruction provided to the band through our closed windows in our homes. We didn’t expect to feel the vibration of the bass reverberating through our homes. What we’re asking for are really the same things every borough resident has and takes for granted. We just want some protection for the conditions in which we live.”
Fifty-one single-family homes and multiple apartment buildings are located within 1,000 feet of the South Track, said Ted Reutzel, whose Edgewood Circle home is closest to the venue at about 112 feet of distance.
In a pre-recorded presentation to council on Friday, Reutzel demonstrated how with windows and doors closed, the sound from the band could be heard inside his home and how the lights illuminated his and his neighbors’ properties.
He noted that in 2018, just as SCASD was planning for the lights, the school board approved new school times that pushed back the start of high school classes later but moved the elementary day to start 30 minutes earlier. Reutzel, who has a school-aged child, and others said it’s difficult to get young children to bed while the band is playing or immediately after they conclude.
“We have elementary school students starting earlier yet the band now is practicing later,” he said. “This is a problem. This is a conflict for all the young children that surround that school.”
Reutzel also showed a text message explaining an elderly neighbor had moved a bed into his office and was wearing noise-canceling headphones in an effort to escape the noise.
A SCASD-commissioned sound study completed as part of the operating agreement recommended no mitigation. But Reutzel estimated based on that study that decibel levels in his and his neighbors’ homes were between 69 and 71, exceeding World Health Organization community noise guidelines for “serious annoyance,” and disturbance of speech intelligibility and sleep.
SCASD also completed landscaping installation required to act as a barrier, but Reutzel said he believes it will be years or decades before it matures enough to substantially mitigate light.
“The zoning variance was egregiously rushed through and the lights and late band practice have destroyed preexisting living conditions for nearby residents,” he said.
Mark Johnson, past president of the Greentree Neighborhood Association, said it’s “a very unique and very difficult problem.”
“This is a tough situation where the 10 weeks where some of the practices do go that late, some of the folks’ homes in the community are basically rendered useless to serve as an actual home,” he said. “You can’t watch TV. You can’t have a conversation.”
Johnson “love[s] the band” and believes a resolution exists without “sacrificing this neighborhood,” in particular the Edgewood Circle community
“I think with some extra effort, some, unfortunately, more money and a lot of time … this can be resolved through various changes that will not discount the value of the band and what it does provide to both the school district and the community,” he said. “I do understand the emotional connection and the wonderful band that we do have here in State College, which I’m very proud of. But I don’t think it is entirely worth sacrificing the folks in the Edgewood community who heretofore had every right to believe that they could have quiet use of their home for a reasonable amount of time.”
Not all Greentree residents have a problem with the evening practices.
“It just seems to us that few extracurricular activities are more essential for our youth than musical performance and athletics and the last thing we ought to be doing is to cut back on the time they can put into these vital activities,” said Dan Letwin, who has a son in the band.
Proposals and challenges
Concerned residents have asked that at a minimum the band be limited to using the lights one night a week until 8 p.m. They’ve also suggested some alternatives, both before the amendment was approved in 2019 and now.
The band could do only marching drills after 8 p.m., English said, and break up to different sections on the high school campus.
Across Westerly Parkway, the new North Field opened in 2019 as well, with lights that did not require a zoning amendment. Residents previously pointed out that it sits in a “bowl” that, along with the north building, shields neighborhoods from lights and sound. They suggested the band could use the field or the adjacent parking lot, if islands were removed, for practices.
School Board President Amber Concepcion said that would be “unrealistic.”
The band’s equipment and instruments are stored in the music wing at the back of the south high school building, near the South Track, where SCASD has spent $441,000 on the lights and $62,000 on the barrier landscaping.
“It’s a very large building and it’s on a significant grade,” she said. “…We do have a number of students in our marching band who do have mobility impairments… Many students with special needs as well as students of all ranges of mobility are part of our marching band because it is a very inclusive organization. To have them have to trek from all the way behind that building around and across to the North Field with their instruments is really kind of an unreasonable expectation, particularly from a concern of accessibility for all students. The building was built so that the music wing is directly across from the South Track facility.”
Lacrosse, field hockey and soccer practice and play at the North Field, which was specifically designed for “rectangular sports,” Brown said. It is regularly in use most nights of the week, and moving those sports to the South Track would likely result in them running past 9 p.m., with additional logistics required for spectators.
Even if the islands were removed from the North Field parking lot, Brown said, having the band practice while competitions were taking place on the field would be “chaos.” The district also tries to have consistency for band and team practice locations, he added.
“Typically all of our locations — North, South and Memorial Field — have events scheduled almost every night,” Brown said. “We have not found a consistent location to be able to move the band.”
Reducing the amount of time that the South Track is available poses issues for both the band and the football team, district officials said.
Football practices at the field as early as possible after school, while the band starts later because it is a inclusive, no-cut organization which has a majority of members who participate in other activities in the afternoon.
Because of the time constraints, Brown said there is “no transition time” between football and band at the field. If the band’s time under the lights is further reduced, he said, they would not have time to practice weekly routines, even if football cut its practices shorter.
“They only have practice two times a week for 10 weeks,” Concepcion added. “We’ve already lost about a quarter of their time. Further diminishing it, it is pretty significant.”
Molly McAninch, district music director, said State College has been ranked among the best communities for music education in the United States and the marching band, which presents a number of different shows throughout the season, is a part of that.
“We owe it to our students to provide the circumstances for their success, which includes the opportunity for all students to participate and have equitable opportunity at that, and to have our South Track facility lit for them,” McAninch said.
“Through the 10 weeks of practice we have, every moment is utilized as much as it can so that we can ensure our sets and our songs are to the best of our abilities,” high school student and marching band member Bryson Nicholas said. “Frequently on busy practice days we find ourselves rushing to conclude before the lights turn off and even occasionally end up packing up in the darkness.”
What’s next
The operation agreement would automatically renew on July 6 if no other action is taken, Ed LeClear, borough planning director, said. Amendments could still be made, but it could not be terminated until 2023.
If either the borough or SCASD wants to terminate the agreement, notice must be given by April 6. If the agreement is terminated, SCASD could not turn on the lights, LeClear said.
Council could also vote to reduce the amount of time required for termination notice to allow for more time to negotiate.
Council is expected to take up the issue during its next meeting at 7 p.m. on April 4 and allow for public comment on the matter.
SCASD, meanwhile, has asked the borough for a complete review of zoning for the high school, “which we believe is incorrectly zoned,” Brown said. The property is variously zoned as planned commercial, planned office, public activities, park and R-3B residential.
