Planning Commission Gives Green Light to Youth Sports Use of Koret Field

Belmont kids are one step closer to playing sports at Notre Dame de Namur University's Koret Field.

The Belmont Planning Commission on Tuesday night voted 3-1 in favor of an to the university's 2005 Conditional Use Permit that allows the Belmont United Soccer Club and Belmont/Redwood Shores AYSO to hold games at Koret Field.

Chair Eric Reed and Commissioners Robert Mayer and Cyndi Wheeler voted in support of the permit amendment. Commissioner Gladwyn d'Souza was the dissenting vote.

More than a dozen residents spoke out Tuesday in favor of and against the proposition, which was submitted in April by youth sports leaders after NDNU opted to stick with its 2005 permit, which didn't allow youth sports groups to use Koret Field.

The university, which its decision to keep the old permit in February, said at the time it was committed to finding a way for youth sports to use the field.

A new permit was approved by the Planning Commission last September, but Belmont Residents for a Tranquil Community -- a group of 35 residents who live near the field and say the noise created by the sports games is unbearable -- appealed the commission's decision, and the Belmont City Council ultimately the commission's version of the permit.

That version, NDNU said, tightened restrictions of the field, even though it also would have allowed youth sports groups to use the field.

An appeal to the commission's decision Tuesday night may be filed within 10 days, Reed said.

Belmont Patch will update this story with quotes from the meeting on Wednesday morning.