Santa Clara County - Artificial Turf field ban vote on Tuesday January 28th coming - Act now or say good bye to Twin Creeks?

[April]

TLDR: The Santa Clara County is voting to ban artificial turf on county land (Twin Creeks & Quakes project directly affected) on Tuesday January 28th. Please e-mail your support for continued usage of artificial turf for athletic fields to the Board of Supervisors (BoardOperations@cob.sccgov.org) by noon on Monday. If you are able to attend the meeting, it would be even better.

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Many local and national environmental groups have adopted the initiative to ban all artificial turf, including athletic fields. They have been diligently attending local government meetings at the city, county and school district levels to advocate for their cause. They will not stop and this will be an ongoing issue at every city, and county in California.

Please read through the additional information about artificial turf and the arguments FOR artificial turf. There are sample letters you can use as well.

Thanks!

 

[outside!]

TLDR: The Santa Clara County is voting to ban artificial turf on county land (Twin Creeks & Quakes project directly affected) on Tuesday January 28th. Please e-mail your support for continued usage of artificial turf for athletic fields to the Board of Supervisors (BoardOperations@cob.sccgov.org) by noon on Monday. If you are able to attend the meeting, it would be even better.

---
Many local and national environmental groups have adopted the initiative to ban all artificial turf, including athletic fields. They have been diligently attending local government meetings at the city, county and school district levels to advocate for their cause. They will not stop and this will be an ongoing issue at every city, and county in California.

Please read through the additional information about artificial turf and the arguments FOR artificial turf. There are sample letters you can use as well.

Thanks!

All of the players I know hate playing on artificial turf. With the health impacts (both physical and physiological) and the environmental impacts of off-gassing and microplastics from artificial turf, this is just the first of many bans. The artificial turf industry has basically ignored these issues for years.

 

[dk_b]

TLDR: The Santa Clara County is voting to ban artificial turf on county land (Twin Creeks & Quakes project directly affected) on Tuesday January 28th. Please e-mail your support for continued usage of artificial turf for athletic fields to the Board of Supervisors (BoardOperations@cob.sccgov.org) by noon on Monday. If you are able to attend the meeting, it would be even better.

---
Many local and national environmental groups have adopted the initiative to ban all artificial turf, including athletic fields. They have been diligently attending local government meetings at the city, county and school district levels to advocate for their cause. They will not stop and this will be an ongoing issue at every city, and county in California.

Please read through the additional information about artificial turf and the arguments FOR artificial turf. There are sample letters you can use as well.

Thanks!

I can remember when Twin Creeks did not have turf and was pretty much just a baseball/softball venue - when I returned with my youngest for soccer and saw the turf, we got to say goodbye to the nighttime dust storms that plagued a lot of nighttime travel ball games.

While I much prefer natural grass, I'd imagine this would essentially close the venue to soccer for the late fall/winter months and maybe altogether since the maintenance would struggle to keep up with the use.

 

[April]

Same. I prefer a well maintained natural grass field as well, but there is the practical aspect that our cities close grass fields for 3 to 4 months out of the year over the winter months. Artificial Turf field has allowed the kids to get out and play even in the winter months. Soccer is more demanding on the field than other sports and we put a lot of wear and tear. The cities choose not to keep up with the grass field maintenance so the conditions of the grass fields tend to be poor to very poor.

I think it benefits the athletic community as a whole to have a mix of natural grass and artificial turf to meet the demands. That is, shutting the door completely on artificial turf would be a huge shame.

With Twin Creeks, if those fields are replaced with grass , they will not be able to serve as a tournament spot for soccer any more. It just means that Bay Area teams will be driving further for tournaments; Morgan Hill, Manteca, Ripon, and etc. All of that will come with consuming more gas to get to the tournaments.

Thanks!

 

[April]

The votes to ban artificial turf in Santa Clara County failed yesterday. The leaders of the local soccer clubs were well represented in the public comments. It was a win for the youth sports organizations but the battles will range on. Anti-turf contingents have made it clear that they will double down on their efforts. Read up on it in San Jose Spotlight.

UPDATE: Santa Clara County artificial turf ban fails to move forward - San José Spotlight

Santa Clara County is preparing to ban artificial turf on all county-owned property, citing health and environmental concerns.

sanjosespotlight.com

The article refers to a recent fight in Palo Alto. Two of their three projects have recently been put in hold due to the anti-turf activism.

Pay attention to the local council meeting, high school district meetings, and county meetings. The anti-turf folks are attending every single one of them, getting to know the politicians and affecting policy. You would think the city would reach out to the local athletic organizations for input but they don’t. The intention is clear; pass a ban or derail projects without the actual users knowing. You snooze, you lose.

If you need help with your city, please don’t hesitate to reach out. We all need to band together.

Thanks!

 

[AlicanteFC]

All of the players I know hate playing on artificial turf. With the health impacts (both physical and physiological) and the environmental impacts of off-gassing and microplastics from artificial turf, this is just the first of many bans. The artificial turf industry has basically ignored these issues for years.

All the players I know hate not playing soccer for four months a year because water-logged grass fields can't be played on,

 

[outside!]

All the players I know hate not playing soccer for four months a year because water-logged grass fields can't be played on,

I am not disagreeing with that, but it is still a fact that current artificial turf fields are less safe to play on, cause significant environmental damage, and have adverse health effects. They are also not as inexpensive to maintain as advertised. To my knowledge, the artificial turf industry seems to be ignoring these issues and doubling down on the advertising.

Artificial turf fields have PVC "grass" and recycled tire rubber "padding". There will come a time when everyone will wonder how anyone thought this was a good idea.

 

[dk_b]

I am not disagreeing with that, but it is still a fact that current artificial turf fields are less safe to play on, cause significant environmental damage, and have adverse health effects. They are also not as inexpensive to maintain as advertised. To my knowledge, the artificial turf industry seems to be ignoring these issues and doubling down on the advertising.

Artificial turf fields have PVC "grass" and recycled tire rubber "padding". There will come a time when everyone will wonder how anyone thought this was a good idea.

The last resurfacing that occurred near me used cork rather than crumb rubber (repurposed tires). That was several years ago. I expected that to be standard protocol by now.

(My older daughter's first 3 seasons of collegiate soccer was on turf (practice and home games), the last 2 on grass (practice and home games and most away games). I know that I was really happy that she got off turf (esp as a GK). My two youngest are at a grass complex. I'm really glad about that)

 

[outside!]

The last resurfacing that occurred near me used cork rather than crumb rubber (repurposed tires). That was several years ago. I expected that to be standard protocol by now.

(My older daughter's first 3 seasons of collegiate soccer was on turf (practice and home games), the last 2 on grass (practice and home games and most away games). I know that I was really happy that she got off turf (esp as a GK). My two youngest are at a grass complex. I'm really glad about that)

My daughter was lucky to do all 5 years of collegiate soccer on a very nice grass field, and only one team in her conference had turf they would play on every other year.

 

[dk_b]

My daughter was lucky to do all 5 years of collegiate soccer on a very nice grass field, and only one team in her conference had turf they would play on every other year.

I wonder if I could guess that field . . .

 

[outside!]

I wonder if I could guess that field . . .

They have a mascot that is into animal abuse. I forgot, there was one other school in the conference with turf fields also (and the lights are at the ends of the fields so that they shine into the eyes of the goalkeepers).

 

[dk_b]

They have a mascot that is into animal abuse. I forgot, there was one other school in the conference with turf fields also (and the lights are at the ends of the fields so that they shine into the eyes of the goalkeepers).

I guessed wrong!