Lights at T.C. Williams: 'Times Have Changed'

Alexandria City Council unanimously approved plans Saturday to build six new regulation-sized tennis courts with lights at T.C. Williams High School.

While the courts themselves were not a controversial issue, the lighting and longstanding trust issues between the school system and nearby residents were subject to more than two hours of discussion.

When the site plan for the new T.C. Williams High School was approved in 2004, it stipulated no permanent stadium lighting would be installed at any athletic field on campus. This was a continuation of an agreement between the school system and residents dating back to when the construction of the original T.C. Williams in the early 1960s.

The school system’s proposal for the lighted tennis courts suggested amending that plan, but only for the courts along King Street.

Still, residents felt the agreement should be upheld. They also sensed the tennis court lights would open the door to Friday night football at Alexandria’s only public high school.

“We’re concerned… that once you strike this line out you’re going to strike every line out,” said Carter Flemming, a nearby resident. “We want no lighting on T.C. athletics fields.”

Alexandria’s Planning Commission felt the agreement should be upheld, recommending only the construction of tennis courts and not of the lights at its December meeting.

Some said Saturday the school had been a bad neighbor and adequate buffering between the campus and nearby residences had never been planted.

Nan Jennings, a leader with the Seminary Hill Civic Association, said residents neighboring the high school had lost trust in Alexandria City Public Schools to work with them to resolve issues.

“Is it any wonder that we rely on this DSUP to protect us from a clueless neighbor that is disrespectful, unresponsive and will destroy the quality of life in our neighborhoods?,” Jennings said. “Yes, a deal is a deal. Please support it and stop chasing after and persecuting us.”

Jim Gibson, a member of the city’s Youth Sports Advisory Board, said it was the nearby residents who were engaging in mistreatment.

“We’re getting bullied because a small minority of folks is controlling what we need to be successful, to be good athletes,” Gibson said. “We need to have these lights.”

He suggested the opposition to the lights dates back to a time when it was considered unsafe to hold athletics events at T.C. Williams after dark.

“We cannot live under the pressure we were characterized as violent and we may fight from 40 years ago,” Gibson said. “We’re beyond that.”

Mayor Bill Euille said he wanted to keep Saturday’s conversation exclusively on the tennis lights, but added he would take it upon himself to begin an in-depth discussion relative to lights at Parker-Gray Stadium at a later date.

The mayor tipped his hand in the process.

“I believe it is important that we as a community have that discussion,” Euille said. “It is long overdue. When I say it’s long overdue, it’s long overdue for more than 40 years. Not five years, not nine years, but 40 years since a high school was first built at that site. I think we should avail ourselves of that opportunity because times have changed, things have changed, technology has changed and it’s not fair to penalize our students and the athletes or the community by not having the opportunity of having high school athletic events during the daytime and the nighttime like all over the country.”

As for the tennis lights, the approved plan calls for sixteen poles with fixtures mounted at 30 feet, a height slightly lower than lights on the school’s adjacent parking garage. The parking lights are on 25-foot poles set on the second level of the garage, which is elevated above the grade of the tennis court site.

ACPS currently does not have funding for the tennis lights but wanted to put in conduit and junction boxes when the court is installed to save the expense of having to dig a second time. The lights were a late addition to the plan, and Flemming said that residents were not properly engaged.

The lights were desired to extend the availability of the courts to 10 p.m. for resident use. School Board Chair Karen Graf said the board takes this into account with all recreation projects.

“The city must maximize the investment for its residents as a whole,” Graf said.

Jim Spengler, director of the city’s Department of Recreation, Parks and Cultural Activities, said Alexandria fails to meet the necessary number of recreation facilities across the board. The only way to accommodate usage is to extend the time facilities are available.

“We can’t double the number of facilities,” he said. “We don’t have the land. The only way we’re going to accommodate the issue over time is with lighting.”    

Nearly everyone in City Hall was in favor of the courts themselves, which will better accommodate the T.C. Williams tennis teams. The Titans have had to host home matches at rented courts more than a half-hour from the school.

“With these tennis courts, the student-athletes can walk right out of their classes and compete at home in front of our teaches and classmates, which we feel we deserve,” said Isabelle Harris, a captain of the tennis team and senior class president.

She said she hopes to play one or two home matches before she graduates in the spring.