The Roanoke Times | File 2008

This aerial image of Patrick Henry High School shows the stadium at upper left. Its current use has restrictions. Roanoke School Board Chairman David Carson will address the Greater Raleigh Court Civic League about expanding its use.

Patrick Henry High School's football team hosted its first on-campus home game in 2007 despite opposition from a group of neighbors in the Brandon Avenue-Grandin Road area of Southwest Roanoke who opposed the stadium's $4.1 million construction.

A rematch between the neighbors and Roanoke City Public Schools may be on the horizon and the same issues seem to be at stake: lights, noise and parking.

Roanoke School Board Chairman David Carson said Tuesday that he wants to do away with the cap on the number of Friday night home games, to allow the field lights to be used during evening practices, and to allow the public address system to be used for daytime varsity lacrosse matches as well as daytime youth football championship games.

"I am looking to amend the proffers to better be able to use the stadium," he said.

The stadium's use still will be limited to athletic events. No monster truck shows or concerts are in the works. But Carson also wants to give the superintendent discretion to approve sporting events beyond the ones hosted by the high school and the city's parks and recreation department. That open-ended provision leaves Suzanne Osborne, a Blair Road resident who opposed the stadium's construction, feeling a little uncomfortable although she has not encountered any problems since the stadium opened.

Her fear is that "the use of the stadium becomes so broad that the good job they have been able to do with controlling traffic and lights and noise and trash will become increasingly difficult, if not impossible," Osborne said.

Carson is scheduled to address the Greater Raleigh Court Civic League about the proposed changes at 7 p.m. Thursday at Christ Lutheran Church, 2011 Brandon Ave. S.W.

He said his intent is for an open and communicative process.

"We don't want everyone to think we're crawling around in the dark doing something we shouldn't," Carson said.

More than a dozen proffered conditions were attached to the stadium when its construction was approved in 2006. Carson said demand for the field has increased as more spring sports teams vie for practice space, the school day ends about half an hour later because the board adjusted school start times last year and practices are under way before the switch is made to daylight saving time.

Tom Carr, the city's planning department director, said no formal application to amend the proffers has been filed. Because the school is owned by the city and not the school division, such an application would have to be submitted by the city manager, he said.

The city would have to go through the entire zoning process again. That entails another application, a presentation and a public hearing before the planning commission, a recommendation from the commission, a separate presentation and public hearing before the city council, and ultimately the council's approval.

"There is really no reason any of these of the changes should be made," said Maureen Eiger, a resident of Mount Vernon Road, who has complained about the impact of noise and lights.

She said that during a football game, she measured the noise levels of about 60 decibels inside her home and about 80 decibels outside.

According to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Web site, both of those levels fall in the "very loud" range, with 60 decibels comparable to a conversation or dishwasher and 80 decibels being an alarm clock or a busy street.

Both Patrick Henry and William Fleming high schools have used the stadium for the past two years. A new stadium will be built at Fleming and is slated to open in time for next fall's football season. That will cut out half of the Friday night football games that have been played at the Patrick Henry stadium the past three seasons, Carson said.

Eiger has her own suggestion for the facility: "They ought to cover the darn thing and make it an amphitheater," she said.