Fullerton College is nearly done with study of proposal to build 4,400 seat football stadium on campus

Fullerton College officials want to convert Sherbeck Field into a 4,400-seat stadium for its athletic teams, complete with a sound system and field lighting.

College leaders have been talking about the project – and nearby residents have been fighting the idea – for several years. The North Orange County Community College District board is expected to consider approving the project’s environmental report this Fall; whether it decides to proceed with construction would be decided later, a spokeswoman said.

The $5.5 million stadium – to be paid for out of the college’s reserve funds – would better enable the school to host events such as home football games and commencement ceremonies and provide more evening physical education classes, college officials said.

The Hornets now play their home football games at Yorba Linda High’s Nathan Shapell Memorial Stadium.

But residents near the college say they could face more traffic, noise and lights at night and question the need for the facility, especially with recent renovations to Fullerton Union High’s stadium just blocks away.

“It’s a huge stadium next to homes. You just don’t do that,” Ken Bane, a nearby resident who has organized more than 500 neighbors against the stadium, said. “I don’t want to overstate it, but when children are trying to sleep, living next to a stadium ain’t good.”

In 2009, construction at the field added artificial turf and a two-story structure for locker rooms and offices. Bleachers seating 2,000 and lights for night play were planned, but never installed.

In 2015, district officials included the project in a master plan for facilities, but later sectioned it out after an uproar from the nearby residents.

Along with permanent bleachers for 4,417 spectators, the proposal calls for six poles from 60 feet to 120 feet tall holding field lights, a sound system, a press box and a storage building – all of which officials said are needed for home football games.

The college can save tens of thousands of dollars a year by not having its football team play nine miles away in Yorba Linda and not having to rent bleachers for commencement ceremonies, spokeswoman Lisa McPheron said.

But nearby residents are concerned the facility could be rented out for other events, which could mean more nights with the lights on, noise and traffic.

The college rents out Sherbeck Field to private schools and organizations for athletic practices. McPheron insisted the school has no interest in increasing the frequency of such private events.

Resident Damion Lloyd refutes where the project’s draft environmental impact report says Fullerton Union High’s stadium can’t be used to host the college’s home football games because of, among others reasons, its dimensions and smaller locker rooms. He said there must be an arrangement that could be made so the college could use the high school stadium at a much cheaper cost than building its own.

As the college district wraps up its environmental review, the conflict with residents has been escalating, spilling over into City Council meetings.

Council members said they are frustrated with what they see as the college’s attempt to go around the city’s land use authority. Because the project is being considered as classroom improvements, it doesn’t need to get approval from the council. Council members decided last month to get a letter written up with their objections to send to the college district.

“The only way they can get this controversial project approved is by calling it a classroom,” Lloyd said. “A stadium is not a classroom.”

Added lighting and other upgrades to the field would enable up to 256 additional students to enroll in physical education classes each semester, the college’s report says.

McPheron emphasized the college district’s trustees have only committed to completing the environmental review process and nothing more.

The project remains very much in flux, she said. “What the project looks like at the end has not been decided yet.”