The Mount Vernon City Council approved the site plan for the Mount Vernon School District’s proposed facilities complex Monday, April 18.
City administrator Chris Nosbisch said many of the city engineer’s concerns with the project have been addressed by the school board in the month since first coming before the council. There are still two concerns for the facility – the height of the poles for the lighting and the potential for having another access road.
Nosbisch was urging the school to fill out a variance request to allow for 80 foot high poles as opposed to 90 foot high poles.
“Our city code is specific, but counterintuitive in this,” Nosbisch said. “By reducing the heighth of the poles, it would better help the residents adjacent to the complex to have less bleed of light from the field.”
Nosbisch said that the variance procedure could take a few months to complete, but this should not hold the council from approving the site plan for the complex.
The access road is also an ongoing discussion between the City of Mount Vernon, Cornell College and Mount Vernon School District on how they are looking to address traffic patterns in that portion of the town. A joint meeting between all three entities was held in early March.
Nosbisch said if the city does see a need to add an additional access road to the schools, there are options the city can take to make that a reality.
One of the changes that all three entities agreed on was creating no parking along 10th Avenue and the loop south of the high school, citing the safety concerns of getting emergency vehicles to the schools when people park in that loop or street.
“Access to the buildings in case of a fire or medical emergency was my greatest concern,” Nosbisch said. “The activities complex is not going to be a fire or safety hazard, but if there’s a game going on and we can’t get to the school buildings to put out a fire or respond to an emergency, that’s something that needs to be addressed.”
Community member Dave Ryan spoke in favor of the project. Ryan said the Uptown Field and Cornell College fields have served Mount Vernon well for a number of years, and the Save the Field bleacher campaign was a huge benefit for the schools.
While there will be significant new challenges to moving an activities complex closer to the high school, including increased traffic and noise to neighbors, there are also significant benefits, including drawing more people to the schools for home activities.
“I don’t think that this complex is going to have a negative affect on property values,” Ryan said. “I understand it may impact some neighbors’ enjoyment of their properties but there are a large number of people who would be willing to pay market value for a property located near this complex.
“There’s never going to be a perfect location for an outdoors activity complex, but having this near the high school buildings with parking already established, restrooms and facilities is the right thing to do every time.”
Mount Vernon schools superintendent Greg Batenhorst said this is part of the 20 year vision for the facilities for the district, and the current track facility will most likely be impacted by the construction of a fourth instructional facility in the future, which would be near Washington Elementary and Mount Vernon Middle School buildings where the current track resides. That proximity would increase sharing opportunities among staff in those buildings.
Batenhorst addressed comments on the possibility of trash impacting neighbors from an activities complex, noting that currently students and crews take care of waste at First Street Community Center and Cornell College fields following games.
“There are going to be a lot of nuances we will not know the in and outs of and how it has impacted our neighbors until we’ve been at this facility for a year,” Batenhorst said.
Engineer Loren Hoffman said that the stands at the activities complex will have closed off feet on the bleachers, keeping most of trash directly on the seats to be cleaned up. As well, fences around the complex will keep most waste from flowing into neighbors yards.
Council member Paul Tuerler said he was very impressed with the work that has been done by the school on this plan, that it was very thorough in addressing concerns.
“I think this council and school are going through some of the same discussions we had in 2002,” Tuerler said.
Tuerler, who lives a few blocks north of First Street, said he sees an impact on his parking during festivals and football games and can understand the angst of neighbors worried about the impact to their properties.
“I also understand the value a project like this can bring to our community,” Tuerler said. “I feel we shouldn’t be looking at this as an adversarial process. The community school is just that – it’s a building for the community, and this project will benefit more than just the people who have students who attend the school.”
Both council members Scott Rose and Stephanie West noted the changes addressed by the engineer assuaged their concerns from the initial hearing on the project as well.