Politics & Government

Youth Sports Groups Apply to Use NDNU's Koret Field

The item will be brought before the Planning Commission in July.

Following up on its pledge to allow youth sports groups to use Koret Field, Notre Dame de Namur University has agreed to let Belmont-Redwood Shores AYSO and Belmont United Soccer appeal to the city for field use.

The youth sports groups submitted applications to the city of Belmont to use Koret Field after NDNU in February the university would not adopt the Belmont City Council's of an amended Conditional Use Permit.

The council's permit modified the Planning Commission's version with shortened hours and a decrease in the number of Sundays the field can be used, prompting NDNU to stick with its 2005 permit.

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The 2005 conditional use permit doesn't allow youth sports groups to use Koret Field, but NDNU President Judith Greig said in February the university would be committed to finding a way for that rule to change.

City Manager Greg Scoles said the item will be brought before the Planning Commission in July.

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Tom Snider of AYSO said allowing kids to use Koret Field would greatly benefit sports teams who currently play on lesser quality fields.

"It’s a synthetic all-turf field, a state of the art field, that’s just vacant most of the time," Snider said. "All we have in Belmont for the most part are school district fields that are either dilapidated or need new irrigation systems. You can’t use those fields when it rains. This will provide us access to an all-purpose synthetic turf field."

Snider emphasized the youth sports groups aren't asking to expand the hours the field is open, or change any details of the 2005 conditional use permit other than to allow kids' sports teams to use the field.

"This is something that I would find very hard to believe that any city council member or planning commission would want to turn down," he said.


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