By CLAYTON PARK

Meadowbrook area residents concerned about impacts that two proposed playfields would cause in their neighborhood took their case to court in an effort to place greater restrictions on use of those facilities following the director of the Department of Design, Construction and Land Use's approval of the projects.

The Seattle School District wants to build the new playfields to replace smaller existing fields at Nathan Hale High School, 10750 30th Ave. NE, and the former Jane Addams School, 11051 34th Ave. NE.

On Feb. 9, Deputy Hearing Examiner Anne Watanabe heard their case and granted their wishes - at least a couple of them.

To the cheer of residents who have formed a group called the Meadowbrook Legal Defense Fund, Watanabe ordered use of the playfields' public address systems to be limited to School District football games on Friday nights and Saturday Parks Department events.

She also ordered the School District to "work with the Department of Parks and Recreation and the Civic Light Opera (which performs at Jane Addams) to ensure that multiple major events are not scheduled at the Hale/Addams sites concurrently. Where possible, stagger event start times to mitigate parking and traffic impacts."

However, Watanabe declined to listen to residents' concerns regarding the School District's proposed 85-foot-tall light poles for the two playfields. The reason: the School District recently withdrew its plans for the light poles because the City is expected to soon change the current land-use code limiting light poles to no more than 30-feet in height to allow for ones as tall as 100 feet.

Furthermore, the deputy hearing examiner also denied several other requests made by the Legal Defense Fund, including the following: imposing additional conditions to control traffic and parking; limiting seating for the new bleachers at the Nathan Hale playfield to 750 - half the size planned by the School District; and moving the proposed restroom and backstop at the Addams playfield so they won't be within view of neighbors.

The bottom line: even though Watanabe sympathized with neighbors' concerns, she upheld DCLU's decision, with the exception of the two added conditions.

Nevertheless, Renee Barton, a spokeswoman for the Legal Defense Fund, hailed the ruling as a partial victory for local residents - and a start, noting that her group's fight for more playfield restrictions isn't over yet.

"We were there to get stronger conditions and we got two," she said.

"We got a limit on the amount of people who could be included on the site at any given time. That limit is 1,000, but it now includes Civic Light Opera."

DCLU, in approving the proposed playfields, imposed a condition requiring the School District to relocate any athletic field event to another venue that is likely to attract more than 1,000 people, but failed to include Civic Light Opera performances into that equation, according to the Legal Defense Fund. Civic Light Opera's shows have been known to draw as many as 400 theatergoers, the group noted in its legal appeal.

Watanabe's recognition that care should be taken to avoid scheduling games at the two playfields that might coincide simultaneously with Civic Light Opera shows "is an enormous boon to our neighborhood because we don't have the parking," said Barton.

She added that the Legal Defense Fund is not opposed to the School District's plans to replace its existing playfields with improved facilities, nor is it opposed to Civic Light Opera's presence at Jane Addams. They simply want to make sure that use of those facilities doesn't get out of hand to the point of making life unbearable for neighbors.

The School District was unavailable for comment.

On April 12, the City Council will address the proposal to change the code to allow for 100-foot light poles at non-professional sports facilities. The Council has until April 18 to make its recommendation to the Mayor. Barton urges citizens throughout the city to join her group in opposing the code-change. "The present code amendment raises serious questions about the lack of exploration of other alternatives," she said.

For more information, call Barton at 367-5764.

Shannon Priebe contributed to this report.