Mailbag: Two opposing views on CdM sports complex proposal

New facility warrants community support

Track coach Bill Sumner’s vision for improved athletic facilities at Corona del Mar High School needs the community’s strong support (“A sporting mission,” Feb. 28).

CdM’s exceptional students and faculty are tarnished by the inferior (and in the case of some practice fields, dangerous) sports complex. I am sure out-of-town players are amazed at the poor quality of the game field at one of California’s wealthiest communities. CdM players have long complained about the condition of the fields.

Some people in the neighborhoods are worried about traffic and parking.

To be sure, there may be some chance that an improved sports facility could lead to a little more traffic from fans and supporters. The drive from Jamboree Road to Ralphs on Eastbluff Drive could even double from one to two minutes! As a six-year Eastbluff resident, I believe that’s a reasonable price to pay.

As most people know, there is a 20-minute period at the beginning and end of school when the traffic is heavy, so avoid the area. The tight parking will substantially improve when the middle school construction crews vacate their space. Some perspective, please.

Paul E. Dunn

Newport Beach

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CdM project would hurt neighborhoods

Regarding the proposed new sports complex at Corona del Mar High School (“A sporting mission,” Feb. 28):

The opposition is there, and growing and organizing, as residents in neighboring communities learn the facts about the size, number of seats and hours of operation, as well as the potential for noise and light pollution, environmental disturbance, traffic congestion and crime.

The current lights pollute our neighborhoods late into the evening. Field activity noise has grown over the past five years and can be heard, at varying levels, any day of the week. It could be in the form of excited players, a loud coach, a public address system set at an unreasonable level, band practice and incessant drumming. And we in the neighborhood expect more as the school pays for needed programs by making its facilities available to other groups.

We’ve had it with people parking in, loitering in and trashing our streets, the loud games and events, and traffic nightmares and accidents.

And now the school is proposing to bring more people to our communities with all of the attendant problems, when there are suitable facilities elsewhere.

This school has demonstrated no social conscience and no sense of community. We cannot accept this and with growing support will fight this stadium into oblivion.

Julie Hutchinson

The Bluffs