County presses Marin Catholic for details on field lights plan

The county planning office has requested additional specifics on Marin Catholic High School’s application to install stadium lights.

In a four-page letter dated June 7, Easton Ehlers, an assistant planner, asked for details about 10 items on the school’s permit application. Most of the requests involve fine-tuning on measurements, such as the heights of the four proposed light poles. One request is for a map of expected effects on surrounding environmentally sensitive or protected areas.

Chris Roeder, a member of Marin Catholic’s board of regents, said the school expected the county’s request.

“The county’s response is a standard part of the application process, and we anticipated there would be clarifying questions and requests for additional information,” Roeder said in an email.

“Each of the requested items are straightforward,” Roeder said. “We expect to have our responses to the planning department back in the next few weeks.”

Sean Kennings, a planning consultant Marin Catholic hired to work on the application, agreed that the county’s request was “not uncommon.”

“At least 99% of the time, whether it is a single-family home or a large commercial project, the county or a municipality will want more specific details,” Kennings said. “It’s really about showing the actual work and about being thorough.”

For example, Kennings said, the application mentions a “typical elevation” for the field light poles, which have been described publicly as being 80 feet high.

“They are responding that they don’t just want a typical elevation,” Kennings said. “They want the actual elevations of all four poles.”

That would include the “proposed structures overlaid on the topographic contours,” according to Ehlers’ letter.

Similarly, the county asks for measurements for each proposed lights array, and data such as the distances from the lights to the school’s property line.

As for potential environmental effects, the county’s letter asked the school to “revise the biological site assessment to map the environmentally sensitive habitat areas, streams and wetlands that occur on or near the subject property.”

Ehlers asked the school to submit all the additional materials at the same time. At that point, the clock would start ticking on the timeline for the county review, Ehlers said in the letter.

Kennings said while the initial reviews normally have a 30-day deadline, the subsequent studies, such as one for the California Environmental Quality Act, could vary based on how many additional rounds of questions are needed.

Once the CEQA study is done, the county will review it along with the recommendations from the Kentfield Planning Advisory Board. The Kentfield board examined the application earlier this month and voted to advance it for county review, with conditions on the timing and use of the lights.

After that, county planning staff could forward the application to the Marin County Planning Commission for consideration, Kennings said. The Planning Commission has the authority to approve or reject the proposal.

The school’s application is the second time it has sought to install field lights. The school says it needs them to offset a lack of field space for practices and games for 21 men’s and women’s sports teams.

The first application, in 2016, was withdrawn after the county planning office issued an initial negative response.

The new application proposes 30% less light use than the 2016 application, the school said. That is because the weekday lighting would be limited to 5 to 7 p.m. in the fall and winter. The 2016 application requested 5 to 9 p.m. on weekdays.

The school is also asking for the lights to be on until 9:30 p.m. on a limited number of Friday nights to accommodate varsity football home games.