The latest design for Duluth's future eastern high school chops the amount of parking spaces in half and strips away an athletic field.
District officials say they can make do with the alterations, but neighbors of Ordean Middle School still worry about the impact of converting the land to a high school.
At its peak, architects had planned about 600 parking spots for the school. That number has been whittled to about 350 spots. Previous plans also called for three athletic fields on the Ordean site, but that number has been reduced to two.
Shawn Roed, East High School's activities director, said the change in athletic fields is manageable. The third field would have been used as a practice space, but to function without it, the district intends to put turf on the two remaining fields on the site and add lights to extend playing time later into the day.
"If we've got turf and lights we should hopefully be able to cover our activities and contests and practices and stuff," he said.
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He added that he understood the sacrifice of the field probably will mean athletes will need to do more traveling to other practice sites around the community. "We'll make it work."
Sandra Leake, an Ordean neighbor, said she's worried about what glaring lights will do to the natural environment of her neighborhood.
"The way things are set up there right now, it already sounds like the games are happening right in our backyard. ... Now we'll also have to deal with light pollution," she said.
Kerry Leider, the facilities director for the school district, said advances in technology greatly limit the focus of stadium lights.
District officials also say they can make the site work with significantly fewer parking spaces.
"We are going to have more parking at this site than we currently have at either East or Denfeld, and obviously both those sites have had student populations approaching the number of students that will be in this building," Leider said.
He added that the school probably will limit parking by allowing only staff, visitors and possibly juniors and seniors to park. To keep cars from spilling onto neighborhood streets, Leider said the city probably would restrict parking with signs.
That won't be enough, Leake said.
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"At East it goes into the neighborhoods, so why wouldn't the same thing happen here?" she said.
Brian Ronstrom, another Ordean neighbor, acknowledged that the district is stuck between a rock and a hard place with the parking situation. Some Ordean neighbors are asking for more of it, and others saying parking lots will mar the natural beauty of the area.
"There is no good way to solve some of these problems. That's why this is the wrong site for the high school," he said. "It's a beautiful site for a middle school."
