After hours of listening to residents’ input Wednesday night, the Hinsdale Plan Commission sent staff back to the drawing board on a proposed zoning code amendment relating to the height of lights in open space districts.

The catalyst behind the text amendment was a denial by the village’s Zoning and Public Safety Committee in June to let the Hinsdale Little League install four 60-foot stadium lights at the baseball fields in Peirce Park. At that time, it was recognized that the code did not allow structures to be built higher than 15 feet, and many park lights exceed this height. The Parks and Recreation Department proposed an amendment increasing the maximum height for park lights from 15 to 60 feet, stating that this change would bring lights that currently exceed the limit into compliance.

During Wednesday’s public hearing on the change, Keith Medick, chairman of the parks and recreation commission, gave a presentation attempting to clear up misconceptions surrounding the issue. He said the amendment protects existing lights from challenge, allows the village to repair and replace existing structures and gives flexibility to staff considering future projects.

“By itself it only allows the possibility of lighting structures,” Medick said. “Just because the code could be changed doesn’t mean that all of a sudden a lot of lights start to pop up around town. It has to go through the normal process of approval it has to come before this commission, ZPS, and ultimately each project would have to be voted upon by village trustees.”

Residents expressed concerns that the amendment threatens the residential character of Hinsdale and is too broad a solution to fix such a narrow problem.

“It is a blanket solution, a one-size fits all text amendment where little parks like Melin or Stough are treated the same way as Pierce and Brook parks,” said resident Molly Hughes. “If its objective is, as stated by so many, to ensure that current lights remain and can be replaced in the future, then this is too big and too broad of a solution. Let’s not kill that mouse with an elephant gun.”

Other residents who live near the parks feared that extending the park hours into the nighttime would add to more traffic problems, noise and lights shining in their windows.

Resident Kevin McGrath, who lives across the tennis courts at Burns Field, said he lives in the glare as the lights shine into his bedroom every night.

“I moved there 25 years ago and I accept the glare up to a point but I don’t want that glare to be shoved down my throat and into my eyes any more than it already has been,” he said.

But while some argued for property owner’s rights, others echoed the needs of local sports organizations and wanting to see their kids play ball.

“I’d like to come out and watch my kids play sports and if I can’t get to the fields (during the light hours) and we don’t have lights I think that everybody suffers,” said resident David Dressler.

Regional Commissioner of AYSO and the president of the Hinsdale Little League were also in attendance to express their support of fixing an error in the code so future structures that need to be placed at or around the fields can be considered.

Resident Luke Stifflear tried to illustrate that the village has moved very quickly in the past leading to bad decisions, and urged the commissioners to fully think through decisions like these and the ramifications this change might have.

“We have heard a lot of good points tonight and I think valid points in many respects which isn’t to say that I don’t think there’s some merit in the amendment but I do think that it could be made better based on some of the things that we’ve heard this evening,” said Plan Commission Chairwoman Laura LaPlaca.

She recommended staff and the village attorney look into ways of changing the language of the amendment to incorporate appropriate ways to grandfather in existing problems and ways to deal with future issues in a way that requires public notice and standards similar to those used for special use permits.

The other four commissioners in attendance agreed, and the new language is scheduled to be available on the Web site by Nov. 3

This discussion will continue at the Nov. 12 Plan Commission meeting.