O'Connell High School neighbors, some of whom have homes overlooking the fields, are concerned about plans to add lights. (Photo: Jay Westcott)

Crime statistics. Traffic counts. Protests, even. (Protests?! Talk about Imperfect Arlington!) These were just a few ideas tossed out by neighbors of Bishop O'Connell High School last night as an informational meeting on the private high school's proposal to light their athletic fields quickly devolved into a strategy session on how to fight the lights.

O'Connell is proposing a full renovation of its athletic facilities in partnership with Marymount University, including NCAA compliant soccer and baseball fields and lights.

Neighbors — a surprising number of whom made it to the Williamsburg Civic Association meeting Jan. 11, despite the falling snow and icy roads — voted overwhelmingly to oppose the lights, no matter what concessions the school makes.

Meanwhile, the school has a couple months to try to iron out the details. March is the earliest the Arlington County Board may now vote on the special use permit for the lights, and that date has already been pushed back several times.

The delay is so that O'Connell can satisfy a number of the conditions being requested by county staff, including a parking management study, says school president Katy Prebble. "We met with staff today again to see what more we needed to do to answer their questions in a responsible fashion, and subsequently we have decided to defer the hearing until March," she says.

She ensured residents that the school was attempting to take neighbors' concerns into account, citing an agreement to limit the hours the lights would be used, to add landscaping to shield the fields, and change some of the other disruptive lighting that is used around the school. They'll also explore opening up the new track to the public, she added.

"Our intent all along was to work as much as we could with the neighborhood," Prebble told the audience gathered at the civic meeting.

But neighbors are not convinced, given that many of them only found out about O'Connell's proposal to light the fields shortly before the first time it was on the County Board's agenda in September.

"Really, our sense was that this was really getting rushed through," said Bill Adair, a neighbor who has gathered 400 signatures against and who started a blog about the proposal. "The neighborhood has felt betrayed, and felt they haven’t been up front."

Other neighborhood activists, led by Ruth Shearer and Julie Bruns, have collected 400 signatures on a petition against the lights.

"It speaks loudly about how the thing is going to be implemented if the lights go up, and I think it’s very frankly a bad sign," said John Seymour.

And thus, the group decided to scrap a resolution encouraging more study of the project in favor of a straight opposition motion. They also seem ready to rally the troops. Adair joked that neighbors could rent lights similar to what would be installed at the field to prove their point. Mike DeBlois, another neighbor, offered to organize a picket.

"I'm talking moms with kids in strollers, folks with signs, something very peaceful, either at a county board meeting, or the county offices," he said. "It will make our point known."