Politics & Government

Madison Residents Denounce Proposed Chatham Lighting Ordinance

The Chatham Township Committee amended the ordinance slightly Thursday and will present it to the Planning Board. The committee may adopt it at its meeting in two weeks.

Chatham Township faced plenty of criticism Thursday night over a proposed ordinance that would regulate the lighting of its athletic fields.

Several Madison residents came to the meeting to express their concern that the ordinance would allow lights to be placed at Cougar Field. The light, they said, could extend from the field into their bedrooms and homes, and they said the additional late-night noise the lights would bring from the facility could also negatively affect their day-to-day lives.

"It's a tremendous imposition on our lives, and it's really not fair to us," said Madison resident Diane Driscoll.

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The ordinance is intended to create rules surrounding the placement of lights at athletic fields within the township. The proposal stipulates that the height of lights at a sports facility cannot exceed 85 feet, the minimum distance from the pole to a property line must be 40 feet and a natural landscape buffer must be maintained to the greatest extent possible.

The residents, who have formed a non-profit called the Cougar Field Neighborhood Preservation Association to protest the placement of lights at the School District of the Chathams' lacrosse and football field, didn't come to the meeting alone.

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They were largely represented by attorney Rob Simon, who brought planning expert Peter Steck and lighting expert Robert Newell to the meeting to essentially testify on the matter during public comment on the ordinance.

Newell told the board he felt the proposed ordinance didn't allow for enough of a setback from the lights to nearby residential properties, saying that a setback generally is twice as large as the lights' height (i.e. if the lights were 85 feet high, the setback should ideally be 170 feet).

Steck said the township's master plan doesn't discuss lighting of fields in the way the township is currently proposing, which he said concerns him. He also said the ordinance appears to create a loophole for lights to be placed on Cougar Field, which he said is not good zoning practice. He called doing so "spot zoning."

"It does not enhance the public welfare," he said of the ordinance.

Chatham Township Mayor Nicole Hagner, however, disagreed, saying the ordinance does not focus on one field in particular, since its language allows it to apply to all of the township's fields.

"I don't really think in here it talks about the Board of Education property," she said.

But because of Steck's comments, township attorney Carl Woodward recommended the committee hold off on adopting the ordinance at Thursday's meeting. The ordinance, as it stood, included language that said "sports or recreational lighting for fields shall only be permitted on municipal or school-owned property."

Woodward said removing that line would remove any appearance that the township was engaging in "spot zoning," since it would allow the lighting regulations to apply to fields throughout the municipality, not just to specific areas.

The township removed the line at Thursday's meeting and will now send the amended ordinance to the Planning Board for comment. If the Planning Board does not make substantial changes by its June 21 meeting, the township could adopt the ordinance at its June 24 meeting.

The change didn't appease the Madison residents, who after the meeting said they felt the township would go ahead and adopt the ordinance without using the evidence from the experts to affect their decision.

"They'd already made up their minds before they got there," said Driscoll.


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