Among the student body at Heritage High in Littleton, Colo., there’s excitement about a new field for use across a number of sports. While the facility isn’t a stadium, it’s still a top-level facility that a number of different student athletes will practice and compete on. And now they’ll get to do so later in the day, thanks to new lighting that was approved as part of the school district’s bond package.
Or will they?
That question is suddenly a legitimate debate thanks to the threat of a lawsuit from neighborhood residents, who claim the bond package they approved never included details about the extensive lighting that has been installed at the field.
“We feel the neighborhood has been transformed from a nice sleepy little neighborhood into something right next to a stadium,” Scott Hannum, who lives on the adjacent street, told Denver ABC affiliate KMGH.
“Now the field can be heavily used until 10 o’clock at night. This street has a lot of retirees and young children that are going to be trying to go to bed.”
For it’s part, the school district has ensured all parties that the field will be closed and its lights turned off by 10 pm each day. Since there are no bleachers or sound system at the facility, all officials have stressed that any disruption caused by the use or rental of the field should be minor.
That’s still not totally comforting for Hannum and his fellow neighbors.
“We are going to come in our backyard — the field is right there — you’re going to have people you don’t know who they are, you don’t know where they come from,” Christine Khorsand told KMGH. “it’s a matter of safety.”
