Neighbors Boo Plan for Ball Field

Occidental College, the small liberal arts school nestled in the hills of northeast Los Angeles, isn’t planning to build another Dodger Stadium as part of a proposed campus improvement project, school officials say.

But nearby residents are still quite upset about plans for a new $800,000 softball field with lights that is expected to attract only about 50 spectators for some games.

Armed with an estimated 300 signatures, people who live near the Eagle Rock school are protesting the proposal for a regulation-size women’s softball field with lights and a hammer-throw field on a 3-acre parcel of hilly, undeveloped land the school owns next to some homes. Also, residents oppose the college’s proposal to install permanent lights on several nearby existing athletic fields.

The noise and the accompanying lights would disrupt the peaceful, almost rustic ambience of the neighborhood, where hikers, joggers and others enjoy the terrain, opponents complain.

College officials stress how much the campus needs the new facilities. The field where women currently play doesn’t meet size regulations set by the National Collegiate Athletic Assn., which governs intercollegiate athletics, but the new field would, they say.

The new field, school spokesman Jim Tranquada emphasizes, merely would put the women’s team on a par with men on Occidental’s baseball and football teams, who play at regulation-size facilities.

School officials also downplay the potential for problems with noise and crowds, noting that fewer than 50 people are likely to attend softball games at the new facility, partly because the school’s enrollment is barely 1,800.

“We’re not building Dodger Stadium up there,” Tranquada said.

In addition to the 120-acre main campus, the college owns 40 adjacent acres of undeveloped hillside property to the north and the east that offers panoramic views. On a clear day, visitors can see Santa Catalina Island from near where the new field would be built.

Protesting residents have formed a group, Citizens Against Excessive Noise and Lights, to push their complaints; they note that the lighted fields may be in use several evenings a week.

“I don’t think my kids are going to get any rest,” said Jeff Jacobs, a physician who lives on nearby Eaton Street and has a 10-month-old daughter and another due in February. “The sense of quietness will be gone.”

Jacobs also is concerned that an errant throw, though unlikely, from the hammer-throw ring could wind up crashing into his backyard.

Acoustics engineer Morgan Martin, another neighbor, added that a hilltop overlooking the site, nicknamed Mt. Fiji, acts as a “megaphone” that carries noise not only to the nearby homes but also to the college dorms to the south.

“You can hear anyone talking over there,” he said.

The new sports facilities are part of a plan that Occidental has been contemplating for three years. The centerpiece is a $16-million physical, earth and environmental sciences building on the main campus, an addition that is not contested by neighbors.

The plan also calls for the current women’s softball field to become a parking lot, an 800-square-foot addition to the campus fitness center, and six new restrooms at Patterson Field, the football stadium. The restrooms would be the first permanent bathrooms at the stadium since it was built in 1916.

Founded in 1887 in Boyle Heights, Occidental moved to Eagle Rock in 1910 and has had generally cordial relations with neighbors since. But now opponents say the college is not paying enough attention to how its proposal will affect its neighbors.

Occidental President Theodore R. Mitchell “will eventually be gone, but we’ll have to live with what he proposes,” said high school teacher Jeff Pott, who lives across the street from the proposed softball site.

Opponents have held meetings with Los Angeles City Councilman Nick Pacheco, who represents the area. So far, he has taken no position on the college’s application for a conditional use permit for the expansion, but he said he’s trying to reach a compromise with both sides.

Meanwhile, Gene Shepherd, an Alhambra police lieutenant who doubles as Occidental’s softball coach, said the new ball field will be a boost to the program because the school, unlike large universities like USC and UCLA, does not offer athletic scholarships. Lights constitute an accommodation to these student athletes because they can’t practice until evenings because of classes, he said.

“The girls are playing because they have a love for the sport,” Shepherd said.