Residents of Mount Vernon Woods and Aria West adjacent to Mount Vernon School’s athletic field remain opposed to adding lights after seeing a demonstration last week.
The school invited its neighbors to Ron Hill Athletic Field on Nov. 20 for a demonstration of different types of lighting, including “dark sky” which is designed to aim light directly at the ground instead of the air.
A representative from Musco Sports Lighting said the amount of light reaching neighbors’ yards would be at zero-foot candles at their property lines. Sandy Springs code requires it to be no more than half a foot candle.
Mount Vernon School has applied for a revision to the property’s conditional use permit to allow it to install lights on the field that is adjacent to the neighborhoods.
In 2003 the school entered into separate agreements with the neighborhoods that guaranteed no installation of lights. The agreements expire next year.
Mount Vernon Woods Homeowners Association President Kimberly Oliver and other homeowners said the agreement intended to never allow lights on the field.
When the school bought 10 acres of property that adjoins its campus with a plan to construct athletic fields, a declaration in the covenant made in 2016 said lights were not allowed and the school could not use it on Sundays.
That restriction remained when Sandy Springs approved a conditional-use permit in 2017.
A statement from Mount Vernon School said the school agreed to conditions that included a sports lighting restriction that was adopted by the Fulton County Commission when it approved its use permit.
“While the agreement was set to expire 20 years after the first building permit, this time limit was not included in the use permit,” Mount Vernon said in a statement. “The school has honored the agreement for 20 years and is now seeking to update the use permit as the private lighting restrictions expire next year.”
The school statement said adding lights to Ron Hill Field will help increase opportunities for sports and expand the ability to use its facilities. The statement said the school would reduce traffic by keeping students on campus instead of having to shuttle athletes to multiple off-campus locations during rush hour for practice.
Oliver said Mount Vernon Woods gave the school accommodation, including smaller setbacks, to help it open.
“We’ve always been helpful to the school as long as there’s no lights because we want to enjoy our backyards. We want to have peace and quiet. We’ve been here for a very long time, and that was our only stipulation,” Oliver said.
The homeowners’ associations began meeting with school officials in February about the lights. They made a field trip with the school to Dunwoody High to see its lights, which are similar to what is proposed at Mount Vernon.
Homeowners from Mount Vernon Woods, Gates of Glen Ridge, and Aria West held multiple meetings and hired a sound engineer to find out if there was a way to mitigate the noise.
“We did the research. And the bottom line is, there’s no way to mitigate noise, and there’s no way to mitigate the lights, even with the new technology because we have houses that are literally 100 feet from the end zone,” Oliver said.
The school’s statement, however, said today’s lighting technology allows the school to minimize glare and light spill in ways that were unimaginable 20 years ago, the school’s statement said. The Musco-designed lighting system will be the most restrictive of any high school in Georgia and will be the only one to meet the environmental lighting standards for certification by The International Dark-Sky Association.
The Sandy Springs Planning Commission could vote on a recommendation to the city council about the rezoning application during its Dec. 18 meeting.