Malibu High School Lights Project Approaches Final Hurdles

With only a few steps remaining in a nearly four-year long process, administrators, parents and students hope to have permanent lights installed on its football field for use during home games by this fall.

The project is awaiting review by the California Division of the State Architect. On June 5, the Malibu Planning Commission will consider a coastal development permit and a conditional use permit submitted by the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District.

In the meanwhile, a fund-raising drive is in progress, with some students, MHS staff and coaches manning a phone bank. The drive was organized by the MHS administration, the Shark Fund and the Athletic Booster Club.

A letter asking for funding for the lights was sent out on April 26. It was signed by Principal Mark Kelly, Shark Fund vice chair Seth Jacobson, Boosters president Tony Perez and Steering Committee Chair Pete Anthony.

Anthony told Patch that funds are needed to cover the costs of four proposed 70-foot permanent lights on the main sports field at the high school. Each light will be covered with a visor to "direct light downward, reduce the spill of light into the sky, and reduce glare," according to city documents.

Anthony said all three groups hope the lights are installed by mid October, which would be half-way through the football season.

“Worse case scenario, assuming all the funding comes in, the project will be completed by December,” Anthony said.

Anthony, whose two sons play football and baseball at MHS, added that the temporary lights have not been in place for four years.

“In the days of those temporary lights, we would have between 1,000 to 2,000 people all watching a game. The lights then were for those handful of four or five home games during the year. People forget that we ever had such large community events,” Anthony said.

He said he hopes that the project can move forward without any further hurdles.

“I think it is important to note the project is a compromise between the needs of the school and the needs of the community, the neighbors and the environment,” he said.

Cindy Vandor, a Malibu resident and environmental activist, said she objected to students and high school staff being used to raise funds for the project.

"When teachers' jobs are being cut, when class sizes are increasing, when there's little or no money for academic resources, then night lights are a frill, not what SMMUSD needs to spend its limited money and time on," Vandor wrote in an email to Malibu Patch.

Other opponents have spoken out against the project's impact on local wildlife and bird migration patterns as well as views of the night sky.

Last October, the California Coastal Commission  (a pair of documents that establishes the rules for coastal development in Malibu).

The lighting at Malibu High's main sports field will be allowed under the following conditions:

• Until 7:30 p.m. during Pacific Standard Time (the first Sunday in November to the second Sunday in March) for a maximum of three nights per week
• Until 10:30 pm. up to 18 times (but never on two consecutive nights and no more than two nights in one week) from Sept. 1 to May 31

The operation of the lights during the fall and spring bird migration periods will be subject to avian monitoring plan, which was approved by the city's biologist on April 5.

Once the Malibu Planning Commission makes a decision in June, it can only be appealed to the City Council, and not the Coastal Commission, according to Senior Planner Bonnie Blue.

The project is expected to take 21 days to construct.

Anyone interested in donating to the Malibu High School lights project was asked to make a check out to The Shark Fund with Bring on the Lights in the memo, and send it to 30215 Morning View Dr. Malibu 90265. Donations can also be made online at malibuhigh.org/bringonthelights.