DelVal Wants Tall Lights for Renovated Football Field

Delaware Valley College wants to get its athletic field to look a bit more like a stadium with bright lights and artificial turf.

The field sits above New Britain Borough and Doylestown Township, and DelVal needs input from both before moving ahead.

“We’re simply proposing to convert the existing football field to a synthetic turf field and make it multi-use for football, soccer and women’s field hockey,” said Mark Mayhew, an engineer representing DelVal. “In conjunction with that, the college would like to light the field.”

The college is proposing four, 80-foot light poles, which Mayhew said are shorter than the ones at both War Memorial Field at the CB South stadium. Mayhew said the lights could be on as late as midnight during practices.

“Eleven o’clock is late to me and midnight is really going to be obtrusive to neighbors,” said Supervisor Richard Colello.

The lighting, according to Township Solicitor Jeff Garton, is actually an issue for New Britain Borough. The college will seek a variance from New Britain for the height of the poles because the current code there only allows for lights about 25 feet high. It's not an issue in the township, Garton said.

“I hope, frankly, [the college] doesn’t have any difficulty with New Britain Borough,” said Chair Barbara Lyons. “We have a great reciprocal relationship with the college, and we want it to do well. It’s a college for heaven’s sake, it needs a stadium with lights.”

The waiver allows the college to go to the next step in the process. The planning commission, which heard the details of the plan earlier, unanimously approved the waiver, moving it up the supervisors. Supervisors also approved it on condition the college seeks the variance it needs and complies with New Britain’s codes and regulations. DelVal must also submit a grading permit before work begins.

Colello was the lone dissenting vote.

The preceding information came from the video recording of the Doylestown Township Supervisor's Meeeting. Residents can views the meeting from the township's website.