Poway staff members are studying a proposal to install artificial turf and lights at Arbolitos Sports Fields at the request of Poway Youth Soccer League members who say the improvements are desperately needed.

The proposal has been a hard sell in the past, however, and homeowners near the fields already are voicing opposition to the idea.

Poway Youth Soccer League President Robert Waldon said he is hopeful a staff study will reveal that technical advances in lighting have resolved the past issues neighbors have had with the proposal.

"Our goal has been to work on the concerns the neighbors have had," Waldon said this week. "We don't want to bully our way in there."

Lights at the fields were proposed in 1996, and in 1998 the city used portable lights to test their impact on surrounding homes. Neighbors included City Councilwoman Merrilee Boyack, a council candidate at the time, who said the lights were bright enough to read by from her home.

The fields are at 14401 Pomerado Road, near Abraxas High School.

The city already has lighted playing fields at Valley Elementary and Meadowbrook Middle schools, and Waldon said Arbolitos is the best choice for a third lighted field because it has the fewest neighbors near it.

"We have to look at this to enhance the greater community, not just eight or nine residents above the park," he said. "But we do want to be sensitive to those issues."

Waldon said the lights that would be used on the fields would not spill over into neighbors' yards as they did in the 1998 study.

"They have technology these days that's a lot different than 1998, when that study was done," he said.

City Councilman Jim Cunningham brought the proposal to the council on Tuesday. With Boyack abstaining, the council agreed to refer the issue to staff members for study.

"I'd like a thorough vetting out of all concerns of the neighbors and the needs of the community," Cunningham said. "I am very aware of the needs of the fields in Poway and the balance in the neighborhood. I see Poway having a dire need for more fields in the community."

Waldon presented two preliminary bids showing the work could be done for between $1.5 million and $2 million. The league already has $100,000 for the project and is committed to raising $350,000, he said.

Waldon noted that a city study in 2005 identified a need for more practice fields, and he said bringing lights and artificial turf to Arbolitos will help address the need. With artificial turf, he said, the fields will not be closed for four to six weeks each summer to allow grass to regrow, as they are now; and lights will allow teams to use the fields each night until 8 p.m., the league's curfew.

The league has 1,500 members with 90 recreational teams and 34 competitive teams that share fields with Poway Pop Warner, lacrosse and rugby teams.

Neighbors opposed to lights on the fields spoke before the council Tuesday and sent in letters before the meeting.

Ko Matsuo wrote: "While I welcome the soccer teams during the day, I do have little children who go to bed at 7 p.m. Just as I don't expect people to be playing ball out in the street at night, I don't expect people to be playing ball behind my fence after nightfall."

Boyack's husband, Steve, questioned whether the new technology would be better than what was tested in 1998.

"I can only say that the most recently lit field, at Meadowbrook field, can be seen for a long, long way," he wrote. "I feel very sorry for the residents near that field who had no say in the lighting because it was a school field."

Waldon submitted a petition signed by 429 people in support of the lights and artificial turf.

City Manager Rod Gould said the study of the proposal will also consider the impact synthetic turf would have on the fields, which are in a flood control basin.

Call staff writer Gary Warth at 760-740-5410.