To the Editor:

Princeton Academy of Sacred Heart, a private day school for boys at the corner of Drakes Corner Road and Great Road, has an application before the Princeton Planning Board on December 10 to turn our quiet dark nights into diesel-powered mega lighting for evening soccer practices and games, which are not even part of the school programs. We will be affected by the lights and noise because we look west, right across the Great Road, at the school’s fields that will be lit up. The darkness of the sky and the silent evenings are a major reason we have lived here for the past 32 years. We use our 12-inch reflecting telescope to find galaxies and nebulae which require a dark sky to enjoy.

The application appears to be an attempt to sneak something through that has the potential to profoundly affect our quality of life. At the very least the applicant should address the specifics of the impact of the lights on us, and of the noise from the diesel generators and from the cheering spectators.

We have no problems with the use of the playing fields for the schoolboys in the early afternoons. But this proposal is for active sports in the late afternoon and evenings and weekends by programs not associated with the school. We fear there will be unrelenting light and noise pollution seven nights a week!

Before the school opened, we helped defeat a prior application to turn the former Our Lady of Princeton convent into a software company. That was turned down by the ZBOA. This was followed by an application to the Planning Board for a continuing care retirement community (CCRC). That project collapsed. Then the school was proposed for the site, and we eagerly supported that application. Now the school proposes to develop its fields for a commercial soccer enterprise that will destroy our quiet evenings and dark skies.

Lincoln Hollister
Sarah Hollister
Ridgeview Road