Business & Tech

Lighting Up the Lake Club

Club's plans to add lighting to two tennis courts meet with resistance from neighbors and questions from the Planning and Zoning Commission.

WILTON -- In an otherwise low-key neighborhood, the Lake Club is looking to add a significant amount of lighting to two tennis courts and the idea isn't going over well with some of the neighbors.

The private swimming and tennis organization went before the Planning and Zoning Commission on Monday night to present its plans to add nine 27-foot-tall light poles around two of its tennis courts to enable more night play at the facility. The resulting potential for noise and light pollution in the area was met with resistance by some.

"Driving down Thayer Pond Road when the lights are on, it's like being at a night game at Yankee Stadium," said Bill Mahoney, who has lived at his Woods End Drive residence for the last 24 years. "When I moved here, it was a nice little club. Since that time, it seems every few years there's something that's added...the quality of life has been depressed."

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Richard Erario, a volunteer member of the Lake Club, presented the plans to the commission. Currently only two of the club's 12 courts are lit, which Erario said inhibits members' ability to complete their scheduled matches before the club must close at night (whichs occurs at 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and at 9 p.m. on Sunday).

"I will say that when we decided that we would like to light these courts, one of the biggest considerations was to choose courts that would have as little impact on the neighbors as possible," he said.

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Erario used a study of the area that demonstrated relatively low leakage from the proposed lighting. According to Town Planner Bob Nerney, Wilton does not have a maximum allowable foot candle measurement (the standard unit for measuring lighting) other than a 2.5 foot candle limit at entrances. So the Lake Club must adhere to the lighting guidelines set by the International Tennis Federation and the Illuminating Engineers Society, which both set minimum light limits for competitive play.

The proposed lighting would measure under 100 foot candles, Erario said, which will meet the ITF and IES requirements but shouldn't have adverse effects on the surroundings. For the sake of comparison, Nerney said the high school football stadium's lighting produces about 50 to 60 foot candles, but is spread out over a much larger area.

While light pollution is the current hot button issue, both residents and the commission expressed concerns that approving the proposal may increase the club's size and set a dangerous precedent for expansion in the future. Resident Albert Miller alluded to this during his comments.

"My concern is that [addition] becomes incremental," Miller said. "Now it's courts seven and eight, before it was the paddle tennis courts...the lighting already denotes that of an industrial area, but it's zoned as a residential one."

Chairwoman Sally Poundstone raised the issue, as well, asking Erario if he anticipated the additions increasing enrollment and facilitating further expansionist plans down the road.

"It will have no impact whatsoever on the membership...we're already at maximum capacity right now," Erario responded. "The primary reason [to do this] is league play during the week...the hope is to be able to illuminate two additional courts so that we can complete the club play and not have to reschedule."

Erario added that the lighting's effects could be mitigated by shielding installed around the fixtures, and also by the fact that courts seven and eight are tiered nine feet lower than the two courts already lit, meaning light would be contained by the surrounding hillside.

The commission ultimately continued the issue to its next meeting in July and made a few additional requests of Erario. These included one from Commissioner Marilyn Gould for a topographical map of the area complete with the distances to the surrounding neighbor's houses and one from Commissioner Doug Bayer for a lighting study that would take into account the cumulative effects of all the club's lighting, instead of just around the proposed area.


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