VIDEO: School Board Votes to Approve Next Steps for T.C. Lights

The Alexandria City School Board Thursday night voted eight to one in favor of moving ahead with the process of installing lighting on the Parker-Gray Memorial Stadium field at T.C. Williams High School, according to a news release from Alexandria City Public Schools.

Board Member Patricia Ann Hennig was the lone vote against moving ahead with the proposed $4.2 million plan.

Community members packed the meeting, lining up to give the board their opinions on the plan. Neighbors chastised the board for going back on what they say was a promise not to add lights at the school. Others declared that home values, retirement income from equity in their homes and quality of life will decline with bright lights, noise, trash and parking in neighborhood streets in the evenings. Some at Thursday night’s meeting lined up to support the lights.

The next step, according to the ACPS news release, is to see the project go through the City of Alexandria’s planning process. A request to amend the Development Special Use Permit (DSUP) and any related restrictions will be reviewed by the City’s Planning Commission and eventually docketed for the City Council.

“While there are many steps to realizing lights at Parker-Gray Stadium, this first step is important in order to allow ACPS to plan field and property improvements on the T.C. Williams site. My colleagues carefully considered the facts around this effort, and we will now proceed through the city’s public planning process,” said School Board Chair Karen Graf.

In making this decision, the School Board took into consideration the fact that as Alexandria’s population continues to grow, more recreation space is needed to maintain quality modern facilities for students. Lighted fields extend the use of the City’s limited open and recreational space. There is no room for new parks and fields and, as such, the City and School Board are aware that they need to maximize investments for the residents as a whole. Given such restrictions, they had difficulty justifying open space that cannot be appropriately utilized because of a lack of lighting.

Additionally, in the period since the original T.C. Williams High School was built in the 1960s, light and sound technology has advanced to the point where spillover can be controlled and managed to limit disruption for neighbors.

On May 27, the School Board began a feasibility study concerning stadium lights at Parker-Gray Memorial Stadium. The study concluded that lights on the field would be viable. The School Board also set aside $20,000 to improve the sound system.

T.C. Williams is the only high school in Northern Virginia without lighting at its football stadium. Although some believe an agreement was made in the 1960s — when the original high school was built — to not install lighting on the football stadium, documentation of such an agreement has not been found. In 2004, when building began for the new T.C. Williams High School facility, a condition was added to the DSUP citing that permanent lighting would not be allowed on athletic facilities on the property.

School Board Vice Chair Christopher Lewis said, “Our Board has been very pragmatic about this decision, providing extra time for community feedback and working hard to ensure that T.C. Williams is working to be the best neighbor it can be.”

The School Board is aware that future decisions around approving lights at the stadium will require continued scrutiny, faithful facility management and compromise to balance the desires of the community with the concerns of the neighborhood around the school.

Alexandria City Public Schools Superintendent Alvin Crawley said, “I look forward to continuing this discussion over the long term, as we look to see how we can continue to improve opportunities for students.”