On Aug. 7, at 5:30 p.m., the Seattle City Council plans to hold a public hearing in their chambers on a plan to light 36 additional City and public school ball fields until 11 p.m. in Seattle, and synthetically turf another 50 fields.

The plan is called the Joint Athletic Facilities Development Program or JAFDP. After the Parks Department ignored neighbors' call for a balanced plan, Mayor Nickels also ignored Seattle's residents and sent the Council a plan that favors sports leagues over neighbors. Mayor Nickels reduced the number of lit fields by only one, and kept the 11 p.m. lights out time for 82 of 88 fields. Worse, the Mayor's Parks Department head now claims that the City Council has no jurisdiction over light turn off times.

First, the turfed and lit fields are unnecessary. While there is heavy demand for week night play, the fields are under-utilized on weekends.

Second, the money need not be spent for turfing and lighting fields. The City has a fiscal crisis. The Parks Department could upgrade more grass and dirt fields at less cost and provide access to all taxpayers, passive park users as well as scheduled leagues.

Third, the plan continues to thumb its nose at neighbors and critical wildlife habitat. In order to appease the sports lobby, the plan sacrifices the residential character of Seattle's neighborhoods, the bird habitat and wetlands at Magnuson Park, and the bird and salmon habitat in the South Branch of Thornton Creek at the Nathan Hale site.

We (the members of Seattle Residents for Fair Field Lighting, www.scn.org/fieldlights) urge all concerned taxpayers to write City Council President Peter Steinbrueck and the City Council, and to testify at the Aug. 7 hearing. Please ask that the JAFDP be rejected and that the Council protect Seattle's beautiful neighborhoods.

- RENEE BARTON, Meadowbrook