The Palo Alto High School Field Project is one step closer to reality after the Unified School District board’s authorization of the solicitation of bids at the board meeting on Tuesday.

The soccer and baseball fields are set to be remodeled with turf, bleachers and fences designed to prevent baseballs from flying off the field.

The board also discussed the possibility of using a different kind of turf on the new fields.

“It has been brought up to me by community members — the idea of turf fields,” board member Camille Townsend said, “but ones that use sand instead of the rubber we currently have.”

Following the discussion, Dr. Robert Golton concluded that a traditional rubber turf field would be preferable to one made with sand.

“The regular turf field has six pounds of rubber in a set area,” Golton said. “The sand field, however, has seven pounds of sand and six pounds of rubber in a set area. It’s essentially more mass.”

Because additional mass has not been planned for, the board decided to remain with its current plan.

The board also decided to file for an exemption from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) because it falls under the classification “categorically exempt.” A categorically exempt project is defined as a project involving replacement or reconstruction of existing facilities, according to the Palo Alto Unified School District Web Site.

The state of California has ruled categorically exempt projects to be lacking in significant environmental impacts, and thus exempt from CEQA.

For more information on the field project, go to:
http://paly.net/facilities/