At today's meeting of the city's Property Standards Committee, a motion was passed requiring that the stadium lights on Queen's west campus artificial turf field at the corner of Johnson St. and Sir John A. MacDonald Blvd.  remain off until such time that the city is satisfied that the lights comply with the municipal bylaw.

This motion will have a significant impact on community partners that use the west campus field for practices and games, particularly in the evenings. Several community groups had planned to use the field this spring and summer, commencing activity later this month. We are committed to working with our partners to find alternate field options, however we realize that this can be difficult in Kingston.

Queen's is in the process of re-aiming and installing glare shields on the lights in order to be in compliance with the municipal bylaw. However, the glare shields are custom made from a manufacturer, and we expect it will take 5-12 weeks for the shields to be delivered and installed on the complete field. We will put every effort into ensuring the installation is completed as quickly as possible.

Queen's remains committed to working with the city and local residents to address this issue while maintaining the on-field lighting levels needed for safe play and we remain confident that the current course of action will result in a significant reduction in luminescence and illuminance levels in the neighbourghoods surrounding the west campus field.

We are aware of the impact this decision will have on our friends and partners and will work diligently to ensure that we are in a position to meet the bylaw regarding the use of the lights as soon as possible.

The west campus artificial turf field opened in September of 2011 and serves the interests of not only Queen's varsity teams but intramural programs and the Kingston community as a whole.

Ann Browne, Associate Vice-Principal (Facilties)
Leslie Dal Cin, Director, Athletics & Recreation