KALAMAZOO (WKZO-AM) — The Kalamazoo City Commission has rejected a proposed ordinance on stadium lighting after representatives with Kalamazoo College and residents in the neighborhood surrounding the school opted to sort out their dispute on their own.
The city spent eight months applying their new public participation model to the conflicts between homeowners and the private college over the lights and noise from the school’s football stadium.
They ended up with an ordinance that neither side liked all that much.
Don Cooney, the vice mayor of the city, said he was fine with scrapping the ordinance.
“It’s hard for me as a commissioner to sit here and say, ‘We don’t want you to work it out, we know better than you,’” Cooney said.
The ordinance was unanimously rejected. A modified ordinance could be considered later, but it won’t impact Kalamazoo College.
The lighting ordinance was the first application of the city’s new public participation model and it stumbled.
It may have been the issue or the application, but commissioner Shannon Sykes hopes it will be fixed and not abandoned.
“Just because there were some issues the first time we tried a new process, it doesn’t negate the validity or the necessity of continuing down that road,” Sykes said.
An after-action review of the process is planned.
– John McNeill
