Public Document Library Table of Contents
The articles below appeared in the Seattle Times and pertain to the proposed construction of 11 lighted sport fields at Magnuson Park located at Sand Point in Seattle.
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Date: February 26, 2006 Title: "200 protest city's actions regarding park proposals" Author: Sanjay Bhatt Link: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/ |
"About 200 people rallied Saturday in front of Woodland Park Zoo to protest city actions that organizers said demonstrate a pattern of dismissing the public's concerns when it comes to decisions affecting Seattle parks." |
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Date: February 23, 2006 Title: "Ire grows over parks decisions" Author: Stuart Eskenazi Link: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ |
"Whether their grievance is a four-story garage being built at Woodland Park Zoo or a major concert series moving to Gas Works Park, neighborhoods across the city are grousing that the city's Department of Parks and Recreation is dismissive of their desires. Activists from several neighborhoods are gathering Saturday morning to publicly protest what they say is a parks-department pattern of subverting public process and pressing forward on projects, in spite of organized neighborhood opposition." |
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Date: April 19, 2005 Title: "Council changes Magnuson Park plan" Author: Jim Brunner (Staff Reporter) Link: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ |
"The Seattle City Council yesterday voted against giving the go-ahead to field lights at seven athletic fields planned for Sand Point Magnuson Park, opting instead to approve only four fields now and telling parks officials they'll have to come back later for approval of the last three. " |
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Date: October 27, 2004 Title: "An odd job for the National Guard" Author: Danny Westneat (Staff columnist) Link: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/ |
"Overseas, 3,200 of the local guard are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan... Here in the U.S., Congress is considering assigning the guard a greater role in homeland security, such as watching borders and ports. And now here in Seattle, the guard is on tap to help build a $60 million sports complex. Uh, say what? " "The scope of work hasn't been decided, but backers of the sports complex say the guard's contribution could top $20 million, including grading fields and building roads, footbridges and restrooms... It's called Innovative Readiness Training, passed by Congress in 1996. Guard units help on a civic project for free, saving local government money... I'm sure there's some merit to having soldiers work at Magnuson Park — although Congress' investigative arm, the Government Accountability Office, says many similar projects have offered 'no valid military training'... " "It may have been quaint, once, for soldiers to build parks. But 9/11 ought to have altered our way of thinking. Twice this year, the U.S. Coast Guard has threatened to shut down the Washington ferry system unless more security is provided. Instead of having soldiers pitch in to help guard the ferries, we're asking them to build soccer fields?" |
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Date: June 15, 2004 Title: "Magnuson Park complex gets approval" Author: Bob Young Link: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ |
"Seattle's Sand Point Magnuson Park will gain a major recreational-sports complex -- albeit a scaled-back one -- under a compromise plan approved by the City Council yesterday. The council's unanimous vote calls for seven new lighted athletic fields at the park and ends months of emotional debate that pitted sports enthusiasts, who wanted more fields, against Sand Point-area residents, who argued the fields would bring unwanted traffic, noise and glare to their neighborhood. In the end, the council opted to shrink a proposal by Mayor Greg Nickels and the Parks Department, which recommended 11 lighted fields. The council also reduced the hours that illuminated fields would be used, saying that lights should be shut off at 10 p.m. with no lights on Sunday evenings. Nickels had proposed leaving the lights on until 11 p.m." |
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Date: June 8, 2004 Title: "The right compromise for Magnuson Park" Author: Seattle Times Editorial Board Link: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ |
"Councilman David Della forged a moderate compromise that would increase the number of fields from eight to 11. Only seven would be lit. Seattle can be sports friendly without allowing a steady run of activities to bring too much glare and traffic. Changes at the park would be phased in over several years and also would allow four unlit fields to be improved in the sports meadow. A council committee agreed two additional fields might be allowed later, which is fine as long as they are not lit. " "The committee made another sensible adjustment: Lights must be turned off by 10 p.m., earlier than initially proposed, and no lights will be allowed on Sundays. Youth and adult sports organizations still will gain field time at Magnuson. The full council should adopt the compromise when it votes June 14." |
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Date: June 3, 2004 Title: "Magnuson Park lights-out approved" Author: (none listed) Link: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ |
"Lights at seven new Sand Point Magnuson Park athletic fields should be shut off at 10 p.m. with no lights on Sunday evenings, a City Council majority decided yesterday... The plan also calls for two unlighted fields and an unlighted, grass sports meadow for many different sports. The city so far has about $12 million set aside, enough to build three or four of the athletic fields, the sports meadow and environmentally sensitive wetlands. Six of nine council members participated in yesterday's parks committee hearing. The full council is scheduled to vote June 14 on the Magnuson plan." |
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Date: May 28, 2004 Title: "Magnuson Park compromise respects concerns of all" Author: David Della (Chairman of the Seattle City Council Park's Committee) Link: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com |
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Date: May 20, 2004 Title: "Magnuson Park plan scales back athletic fields" Reporter: Stuart Eskenazi Link: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ |
"A $60 million proposal to redevelop part of Sand Point Magnuson Park into Seattle's largest recreational-sports complex is being scaled back under a revised plan that reduces the number of lighted athletic fields from 11 to no more than seven. The City Council's parks committee began crafting the revision yesterday, which the full council still must decide on.... The committee intends to put conditions on the seven-field plan. The city has only $12 million committed to the redevelopment, which would pay for building, at most, four lighted fields. "Council Member Peter Steinbrueck voted in favor of the seven-field plan, but said he was hesitant to do so without first knowing the source of money for the additional fields. He also wants the city to closely monitor the impact of the first four fields before committing to others. 'Wouldn't it make sense to allow this thing to develop and evolve over time?' he said. " |
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Date: May 9, 2004 Title: "Dim the lights at Magnuson Park" Author: Seattle Times Editorial Board Link: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ |
"Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels and Parks Superintendent Ken Bounds have a plan for Sand Point Magnuson Park that goes overboard to expand the number of sports fields at the old Navy airfield. They would increase the number of fields from eight to 15 — 11 to have all-weather synthetic surfaces and be equipped with bright lights for year-round play... Reasonable minds ought to craft a more-moderate alternative: fewer fields and fewer lights." "The city's proposal also does not pencil out financially. The parks department currently has $13 million of $60 million needed to pay for the development. The new facilities will increase operating costs in a city already facing a $26 million shortfall in the general-fund budget next year. The plan is grossly underfunded and comes at a time when the city does not have enough money to adequately maintain other basic services, including reasonable library hours." "Bring on the compromise. Organized sports can gain a lot of playing time, fulfill some demand for improved sports fields, without overpowering and overwhelming the surrounding community. Pare back the plans to a more realistic, affordable number." |
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Date: April 22, 2004 Title: "Playfield report may fuel debate over plan for Magnuson Park" Reporter: Stuart Eskenazi Link: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ |
"A City Council report released yesterday reveals for the first time that even without building 11 new lighted athletic fields at Sand Point Magnuson Park, Seattle does better than comparable Western cities in providing sports enthusiasts places to play their games... the city of Seattle operates 3.6 sports fields for every 10,000 residents. The next highest ratio is Denver, at 2.9 per 10,000, while Oakland, San Jose, San Francisco, San Diego and Los Angeles all teeter around 1 per 10,000." "... 27 percent of the city's existing athletic fields are in poor condition. Councilman Peter Steinbrueck said a previous council directive stated that before the city would build new fields, it would improve existing ones. 'It's clear that there is plenty of demand for athletic fields in Seattle — I don't need any more convincing on that,' he said. 'But what is not so clear is whether we are fully utilizing the resources that we already have and could potentially meet some of that demand by fixing existing fields.'... 'What concerns me most is we only have 20 percent of the current [Magnuson Park] project funded and there are no significant funds in sight to fulfill the implementation of the entire project,' Steinbrueck said. 'We're selling people a bill of goods that is not attainable and raising expectations and hope.' Steinbrueck said he worries that if the council commits to the entire plan, it might be compelled to fund the remaining fields at the expense of other city services that are of a higher priority. " |
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Date: April 2, 2004 Title: "If You Build It" Author: (2 Letters to the Editor) Ruth Etzioni; Logan Downing Link: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ |
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Date: March 23, 2004 Title: "Magnuson Park ballfield plan finds objectors across the lake" Reporter: Nick Perry Link: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/ |
"Last summer, Kirkland homeowner Rob Horwitz became so incensed at plans to illuminate 11 new ballfields across Lake Washington that he grabbed a tape recorder and began running and cycling along the eastern waterfront... he gradually amassed a database of 3,000 homes stretching from Kenmore to Hunts Point. When he sent newsletters to each address, 500 homeowners wrote back in support, many sending donations. Horwitz instantly had access to some of the region's most prominent people—people he claims would be willing to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars fighting in court to stop the development, if it came to that. " "Horwitz argues that the project concerns the whole region. 'When you see what's happened on the East Coast with really poor industrialization and urban planning, you feel strongly that you don't want it to happen here,' he said." "The objections of Horwitz and others are expected to come to a head in the next few weeks as the Seattle City Council moves toward a final vote on the project at Sand Point Magnuson Park." |
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Date: March 11, 2004 Title: "Sifting Sand Point figures" Author: Ken Bounds, superintendent, Seattle Parks and Recreation Link: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/text/ |
"It is prudent to complete a park master plan before all the funding is available, as it is virtually impossible to assemble all of the needed funding up front, especially for a great urban destination park like Sand Point Magnuson. Having a plan in place can help gather support for the pursuit of that funding...In this case, in anticipation of City Council approval of some ballfields at the park and the existence of a plan, the Pro Parks Citizen Committee, the mayor and the City Council included funding in the 2000 Pro Parks Levy for five fields." |
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Date: March 6, 2004 Title: 5 Letters to the Editor concerning Feb. 27 Pro/Con pieces Author: [Multiple] Link: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/ |
Three letters published are against the 11 lighted field Magnuson Project ("Lost in the lights, " "Nature trial, " and "Dispelling the fog") and two letters are in support ("Children playing where once were piles of junk, " and "Here a beacon"). |
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Date: March 6, 2004 Title: "Seattle weighs $9.3 million budget cut, loss of 20 jobs " Reporter: Susan Gilmore Link: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/ |
"With cuts as low as $1,000 and as high as $730,000, Mayor Greg Nickels and four Seattle City Council members took the budget knife to 119 programs and carved $9.3 million out of the city budget." Included are "Cuts of $1.5 million throughout the Parks Department, including reductions in maintenance work, the loss of a tree-maintenance specialist to deal with Dutch elm disease, and less money for exhibit improvements at the Seattle Aquarium. " |
| Date: March 4, 2004 Title: "Magnuson Park proposal being viewed in new light" Reporter: Stuart Eskenazi Link: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html |
"New Seattle City Council members are raising scores of questions about a proposal to build 11 lighted athletic fields at Sand Point Magnuson Park, giving renewed hope to those lobbying for a smaller-scale project." "Those have been completed and parks officials are ready to build as soon as the council gives the go-ahead, which conceivably could happen in a couple of months. But with a new council in place, a different light is shining on the fields. Rookie council members David Della and Jean Godden recently submitted to parks officials a list of 10 queries on plan details that supporters thought already had been vetted. In addition, plan opponent Tom Rasmussen has replaced proponent Margaret Pageler on the council... Suddenly, a project that seemed inevitable appears far less certain." |
| Date: February 28, 2004 Title: "11 from 5 does not compute" Author: [Letters to editor] (5th letter) Gail Chiarello Link: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/text/ |
"The Pro Parks Levy that voters passed in 2000 included $12 million to fund improvements at Sand Point Magnuson Park, a project now estimated to cost upwards of $60 million. That levy called for five additional playing fields at Magnuson—not 11 new fields plus a dubious wetlands-restoration project that essentially provides fill dirt to level the sports complex, and then serves as a drainage pond for its runoff." "... The Magnuson Park boondoggle essentially services the needs of adult sports leagues and was born at the end of the flush '90s.... It is a sin to close libraries for children while adult jocks play at taxpayers' expense until 11 p.m. at Magnuson Park. " |
| Date: February 27, 2004 Title: "Con: Plan's scope incompatible with wildlife, other park users" Authors: Diana Kincaid and Kim Wells, president elect and president of Friends of Magnuson Park Link: seattletimes.nwsource.com/ |
"This irreplaceable city treasure [Magnuson Park] is about to be bulldozed... The Seattle Parks and Recreation Department proposes to build a massive, $60 million regional sports facility on nearly half of the park's open space. This facility will be industrial strength, overwhelmingly devoted to fields overlaid with synthetic carpeting, forests of light towers and huge parking lots... Existing seasonal wetlands would be filled and 'replaced' with man-made wetlands, which have an 85 percent failure rate in our state. Picnic and beach areas will be reduced; open space will be lost. There will be no more quiet evenings in the park." "The sheer magnitude of this project makes it incompatible with wildlife and with other park uses... This complex will occupy 72 acres when you consider the synthetic turf fields and their immediate landscaping, spectator areas, parking lots, and the pathways serving them. It will consume a comparable amount of land as Seahawks Stadium and Safeco Field combined... The park will be bathed in light by 628 high-intensity fixtures, creating a 'sky glow' equivalent to six regional shopping malls." "The parks department plan is too overwhelming, too destructive to wildlife and too unfair to other users of the park to seriously consider. For the sake of ourselves and our children, we should be looking for ways to enhance the open space in this wonderful, multiple-use city park, not destroy it." |
| Date: February 27, 2004 Title: "Pro: Improvements will serve children, help preserve park's natural resources" Author: Stuart Kahn, president of the Northeast Seattle Little League Link: seattletimes.nwsource.com/ |
"I have carefully reviewed the plans for the further development of Magnuson Park, and I am confident that the plan can provide a much-needed modest increase in sports fields, while preserving and enhancing the natural assets of the park...As a coach and a father, I know that the quality and quantity of available fields in Seattle are insufficient to support youth sports... as a pediatrician, I know that youth sports programs provide benefits of exercise and activity that help prevent obesity, teen pregnancy, drug abuse and related personal and social problems. " "Will the lights affect the ecosystem? The science remains unclear, but the plan calls for shielded lights and tall trees to minimize effects on adjacent areas and neighborhoods... Will our views be affected? Yes, our night view of the neighborhood lights and the lights across the lake will change slightly, but that change will remind us that we are working hard together to maintain Magnuson Park as one of the city's jewels, while we also provide needed sports fields for our children and ourselves." |
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Date: February 27, 2004 Title: "Favoritism feared in plan to fight crime in precinct" Reporter: Michael Ko |
"Despite a strapped budget, the Seattle City Council's public-safety committee has scraped together $400,000 for a pilot project to help the Seattle Police Department fight crime... The proposal pulls $400,000 out of a $1 million playfield-improvement project on Capitol Hill and uses it instead to fund public-safety projects in the same area. The improvement involved turning natural grass into artificial turf, but council members reasoned that the playfield, in Cal Anderson Park, first needs to be cleared of its significant public drug problem." |
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Date: February 27, 2004 Title: "City must cut spending, workers must expect less" Author: Seattle Times Editorial Board |
"Seattle needs to cut its spending. Its problem is not overwhelming, like California's, but it is both urgent and chronic... Budget Director Dwight Dively puts the shortfall at $10.5 million this year and about $20 million next year... This is not a time for council members to rush and save favored programs. It's a time to take the heat. Council members will have to look at everything from parks and public health... Seattle's economy is too weak to take a tax increase, and city spending still has too many extravagances from the boom years." |
| Date: October 20, 2003 Title: Issues facing Seattle City Council candidates Author: Chart drawn from interviews with Seattle Times reporters Jim Brunner, Bob Young and Susan Gilmore Link: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/politics/ |
The Seattle Times asks the candidates for the 5 contested Seattle City Council positions their position on 5 major issues, Magnuson Park being one of them:
"Do you support the Seattle Parks Department's plans to develop Magnuson Park with 11 lighted ball fields, which opponents say will be brighter than Safeco Field? Some fields will remain open as late as 11 p.m. Why or why not? What changes do you favor?" |
| Date: July 24, 2003 Title: LIGHT LOOMS: "Switch to another location" and Twinkle wrinkle" Author: [Letters to editor] (5th and 6th letter) Peggy Printz; Aaron Contorer Link: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html |
"The only way to protect the pristine
environment along the shore of Lake Washington is to locate the fields elsewhere, ideally
in an industrial area." "Our government must tame outdoor lighting and make sure it shines down, not sideways into our homes, or upward into the sky we all share" |
| Date: Jul. 21, 2003 Title: "Neighbors learn to live with athletic-field lights" Author: Stuart Eskenazi (reporter) Link: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html |
Front-page article about the effects on nearby residents of new lighting (92 1,000 watt bulbs on six 80ft towers) at Genesee Playfield in Southeast Seattle. Lights stay on as late as 11pm to accommodate adult-league soccer games. "While soccer and softball players seeking more opportunities to play night games within the city are happy about the plans, affected neighborhoods tend not to be as residents fret over glare, noise and traffic… The result is neighbors having to endure bursts of noise from the fields and a constant glow upon what used to be a peaceful, dark horizon." |
| Date: June 12, 2003 Title: "Magnuson Park neighbors battle proposed sports fields" Author: Stuart Eskenazi (reporter) Link: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/text/ |
"The [Seattle City] council approved preliminary designs for the athletic complex in 1999 and 2001 but is now being pressured to reconsider... The Magnuson Park project is the centerpiece of a City Hall objective to more than double the number of lighted athletic fields citywide. It also is intended to lure potentially lucrative amateur-sport tournaments to town. Friends of Magnuson Park, however, dubs the plan a glaring mistake that would destroy one of the last refuges of nature within the city… So far, $13.6 million in levy and grant money has been earmarked toward the estimated $60 million project…" |
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Date: October 8, 2002 Title: "Council compromises on field lights" Reporter: Bob Young |
"After receiving hundreds of e-mails, letters and calls on the subject, the council voted yesterday to end games at 10 p.m. weeknights on new city fields and let lights stay on until 10:15. Fifteen existing fields would be allowed to continue lighting until 11 p.m. The council voted to prohibit lighted games on Sunday nights at new fields. " "Lighted playing fields have become a hot issue because of the Parks Department's plan to double their number to accommodate increased use. " "The City Council has no formal authority over the athletic fields' blueprint and lighting policies. But the council does control finances and approval for the new fieldsNow the debate moves to Nickels and Parks Superintendent Ken Bounds. Bounds has statutory authority for scheduling at all city fields. He said he is '95 percent in synch' with the council's resolution. He said his preference was that the lighting for new fields be decided on a case-by-case basis and that the city not 'have hard and fast rules.'" "The City Council has no formal authority over the athletic fields' blueprint and lighting policies. But the council does control finances and approval for the new fields." |
| Date: July 09, 2002 Title: "Field-lighting plan should be rejected" Reporter: [Opinion Piece] Renée Barton and Keith Hoeller (Seattle Residents for Fair Field Lighting) |
Mayor Nickels’ Joint Athletic Facilities
Development Program (JAFDP) gives organized sports leagues everything they have wished for
by calling for lighting 36 new fields for a total of 88-lit fields citywide. Lights will
be allowed to stay on until 11 p.m. throughout the city, one hour past the city's 10 p.m.
noise ordinance. "Apparently, if you live near a school or athletic field in Seattle,
you are a second-class citizen and neither the zoning laws nor the noise ordinance
apply." "With levies and other sources of public revenue, taxpayers have already funded $95 million to synthetically turf and light fields. The JAFDP will commit the city to spending tens of millions more… this taxpayer subsidy to light fields for evening use by adult leagues does not take into account … a report by the city auditor, [that] the playfields are under-utilized on weekends. The [Seattle City] council needs to ask why we are building and lighting all these fields, when the leagues could meet their demand for more playing time on the weekends." |
| Date: May 28 2002 Title: "City shouldn't be so eager to light up urban habitats" Author: [Opinion Piece] Lauren Braden (advocate for wildlife habitat) and Marilyn Sandall (Seattle Audubon Society) |
Placing intense sports-field lighting near environmentally critical areas such as Magnuson Park, home to over 150 species of birds, will threaten wildlife. "Wildlife biologists have found that artificial lighting adversely affects birds in a number of ways — it triggers breeding out of season, changes feeding behavior and increases predation… Artificial lighting can change the migratory behavior of salmon… Fields should not be sited near critical habitat (streams, wetlands or forests). Fields should not be lit beyond natural daylight times. Impacts to wildlife and habitat should be considered—not ignored—in all lighting decisions." |
| Date: June 27, 2002 Title: "Lights will dim earlier at selected city parks" Author: J. Martin McOmber (reporter) |
"Bowing to pressure from some neighborhood groups, the Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation plans to turn off lights earlier at some athletic fields around the city…Starting next year, four of the 19 playfields with lights will go dark an hour earlier (10 pm): Ballard, Bitter Lake and Loyal Heights in North Seattle and Miller on Capitol Hill…Beyond the glare from lights, homeowners have complained about the noise, traffic, parking and trash from late-night games… The Parks Department has been under tremendous pressure from organized sports leagues, which already must compete for increasingly scarce time on Seattle fields." Seattle Parks Superintendent Ken Bounds called the hour earlier shut off "a real effort to balance and customize the scheduling." Lighting critics called the decision "disappointing." |
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Date: April 11, 2002 Title: "Plan for more lighted fields leaves neighbors, soccer teams unhappy" Reporter: J. Martin McOmber |
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Date: February 21, 2001 Title: "Seattle opts for 100-foot lights at school fields" Reporter: Jim Brunner |
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Date: February 6, 2001 Title: "City to consider tall lights at playfields" Reporter: Caitlin Cleary |
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Date: February 5, 2001 Title: "Schoolyard lights shine in everyone's eyes" Author: Renee Barton |
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Date: February 26, 2000 Title: "Athletic complex at school gets city's OK" Reporter: Keith Ervin |
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[Page last updated 3/7/06]