A City Council committee last week rejected a move by Loyal Heights neighbors to keep the lights at a nearby playfield off for three nights a week.

"What benefit is it for kids to play sports, with limited playfield use," said Pat Brake, President of Ballard Junior Football, during testimony at a hearing by the Council's Urban Development and Planning Committee. "It would be cutting our throats," he said.

Youth sports enthusiasts, who spoke at the council hearing in opposition to keeping the lights off extra nights, said such limitations would hinder the purpose of the park.

The Seattle Parks Department had asked the committee to approve a modification of zoning rules to install new 100-foot light poles at the Loyal Heights Playfield, as part of $2.3 million renovation. The parks department plans to have the new lights illuminate the field in the evenings, six days a week.

Councilmember Richard Conlin had sought an amendment that would limit the use of lights to five days a week from April though September, and four days a week from October to March. But the other two committee members, Councilmembers Tom Rasmussen Peter Steinbrueck, voted to support the original amendment without the restrictions.

Neighbors had hoped the lights would be off more evenings as a form of mitigation to the playfield improvements at the 6.7-acre site, located between 20th and 22nd Avenues Northwest and Northwest 75th and 77th Streets. Those improvements include not only the additional light poles but also synthetic turf, making the athletic areas - a baseball and softball diamond and combination soccer and football field - useable all year. Currently, natural grass fields are not used from the end of November until March. Neighbors fear changes to the park leading to increased use will mean increased noise and traffic snarls in the neighborhood.

"It's very disturbing to have five or six nights of cars and sports," Helen Dixon, a neighbor who lives across from the park, said during the meeting's public comment period.

"I'd like to park on my own street two or three days a week," she said.

Councilmember Conlin agreed.

"I'm in favor of having athletic fields, but this community deserves to have a little different treatment," he said.

But Steinbrueck and Rasmussen, though expressing sympathy for the neighbors, contended that amendments considering zoning light poles were not the forum for making or changing park policy.

"This is a land use decision, not a parks operations issue," Steinbrueck said. "We're not managing the parks department. That's why we have the superintendent," he said.

Parks Superintendent Ken Bounds, in attendance to answer Council questions about the proposal, suggested the issue of potentially burdensome lighting could be reconsidered at some later date.

"Give us some time ... let us have some experience. If it's as bad as neighbors think it's going to be, we'll take it up," he said.

But that meant little for Dana Servheen, a Loyal Heights Community Council member and neighbor who testified during the meeting.

"We wouldn't have come to the Council with this proposal if we could've gone to parks," she said.

The Seattle Parks Department and community members near the playfield have long been at odds over the planned improvements. The department has maintained that most neighbors are indifferent to plans at the playfield, evidenced by sparsely attended community meetings on the subject. Several neighbors have maintained that the community is unwilling to participate in public meetings that are simply an artifice for a pre-determined course of action by the city.

The full council will consider the zoning amendment on Monday, Sept. 25. The Loyal Heights Playfield improvements are slated for completion before the end of the year.