By SUSAN PARK

A resolution between the City's Department of Construction and Land Use and neighbors living near school fields over the proposed use of playfield lighting may finally be met due to the discovery that lights poles need not be as high as School District officials originally requested.

The discovery was made during a public hearing where an expert lighting witness, Russ Owens, chairman of the Sports Lighting Committee of the Illuminary Engineering Society of North America (IESNA), testified under duress that the lighting expert hired by the Seattle School District is essentially a "double agent," representing himself as both a lighting engineer who recommends specific brands of lighting fixtures while doubling as the manufacturer of the lighting fixtures he is recommending.

In what appears to be a conflict of interest, Del Armstrong, owner of Soft Lighting Systems Inc., a manufacturer of field and parking lot lighting systems is also representing himself as a lighting engineer through his other corporation, Armstrong Electrical Engineers Inc., both conveniently located out of the same office at 1840 130th Ave. NE in Bellevue.

Owens was originally called in by the appellants, the neighbors of playfields, to explain why he and IESNA generally recommend shorter light poles, different fixtures, and lightbulbs of a lower intensity than those recommended by Armstrong. Owens said that the Soft Light fixtures Armstrong is recommending are "basically a box." Owens added that they are not aimable, have fixed positions, and are therefore harder to adjust than conventional field lights, more poles and more fixtures mounted higher to correctly light the entire field. After delivering a lengthy testimony, Owens was cross-examined by the Seattle City Attorney about his knowledge of Armstrong, also a former chairman of IESNA. Eventually, it was revealed that Armstrong was the manufacturer of Soft Light.

Owens added later that he did not want to say anything bad about Armstrong since he is his friend and colleague and refused to answer questions about it from the appellants who hired him to testify. However, he was required to answer questions from the defendant who asked point blank: "Are you familiar with Del Armstrong? Who is he?"

Questioning proceeded until Owens finally admitted that Armstrong's company manufactures the Soft Lights he has been recommending that the School District purchase and install on all its playfields.

Owens said, in his business in California, he recommends a variety of different lighting manufacturers based on application. For sports field lighting, he usually only uses Muscow, Quellight, and Universal Lights. Owens added that in California, Soft Light is used primarily in car dealerships and tennis courts.

Owens said he considers himself an independent lighting consultant who is "not involved in a (manufacturer's) program where he gets a perks package or a trip to Italy or whatever." Owens was asked by the defendant if he feels that they need more than one consultant? Owens answered: "You just have to find a consultant that can be objective and doesn't have an agenda ... Del's trying to promote his own product. I don't blame him."

In defense, the City's attorney claimed that Armstrong recommends other brands as well as his own.

Owens added that he frequently works with agencies to work out problems with neighbors and discovered that adjustable aimable light fixtures are better at fixing "light trespass" problems than fixed lights such as Soft Lights, which are permanently fixed in position on wooden poles. Owens said there are three types of light trespass: "sky glow," which add brightness to the sky and make star watching difficult; "spill light," which is the measurable light that extends past the perimeter of the field; and "glare," which is the offensive light that he compares to the effect of oncoming bright headlights when driving on a long, dark road.

One of the concerns by neighbors who live near the fields is that bright lights will shine into their yards and homes until 10:30 p.m. Auky Van Beek, a Meadowbrook resident, said upon visiting a playfield in Bothell lit by Soft Light brand fixtures, she noted that at two of the houses closest to the field, it was "light enough to garden at night and possibly read." Van Beck also noted that berms planted with trees and shrubs had been constructed to lessen the amount of spill light, something that the Seattle School District should do as well.

Another concern is the impact on the endangered Chinook salmon who require dark waters to swim upstream to spawn in Thornton Creek, which runs just east along the perimeter of Nathan Hale High School's football field.

Owens said that some of the spill light could be avoided by using shorter poles moved in to the inside of the track rather than the outside. He also explained that different sports require different types of lighting. For football and soccer, 100-foot-tall lights are required for Class I-type professional and collegiate sports such as at Husky Stadium where two different types - an old and a new - of Muscow brand lighting are used. Class II fields for high schools and colleges require 50-foot-tall lights and Class III fields for high school, recreational, and collegiate training require lights as short as 30 feet tall. Armstrong had recommended 90- to 100-foot-tall lighting.

Owens also said that 100-foot-tall lights are much more expensive and difficult to maintain and that a truck large enough to reach the lights would be too heavy and would crush most artificial turf fields. Owens strongly recommended lights no taller than 80 feet for that reason.

Nathan Hale High School neighbors Renee Barton and her husband Keith Hoeller along with other residents were concerned that lights at such a high elevation would be visible from the entire Meadowbrook neighborhood as well as parts of the surrounding Wedgwood, Victory Heights, and Maple Leaf communities. They conducted an experiment where they filled balloons with helium and tied them to strings of the same lengths as the proposed light poles. Then they notified all of the neighbors and had them take photos from their backyards to show how their view would be affected. The largest impact was on the neighbors living up the hill to the south and west. The balloons could also be seen from Lake City Way.

The new lighting ordinance proposed by DCLU that is being appealed by residents did not give any specific restrictions on the use of lights, at what hours, nor at any particular height limit. West Seattle resident Susan Harmon pointed out "There is nothing in this ordinance to prohibit floodlights."

Harmon added, "It's not so much the lighting, it's what comes along with the lighting," mentioning noise late at night, locked gates not open to general public use during off hours, and parking problems.

Haller Lake resident Charles Prestrud suggested that the city adopt specific light and field use restrictions such as those adopted by Bothell which limit the times the field can be used, the type of P.A. system, and the number of lights that can be turned on and until what time.

"There's a large public outcry every time lighting goes on at any sports facility. Sometimes we might come up with two or three lighting plans. No one plan resolves all issues. No one fixture resolves all issues." There is "always a way to compromise, always alternative ways of doing things," says Owens.

The Hearing Examiner should come back with her response by mid-November. Meanwhile, the court case continues. Hoeller and Barton of Seattle Residents for Fair School Lighting said their group is requesting donations to continue its mitigation efforts. Donations can be mailed to: P.O. Box 15680, Seattle WA 98115.