Sunnyvale officials delay vote to ban artificial turf

The debate between using artificial turf or natural grass on government-owned athletic fields in Sunnyvale has been pushed into the future, leaving environmental activists and youth sports groups in limbo.

The Sunnyvale City Council declined to decide on banning artificial turf after a 4-2 vote, with Mayor Larry Klein and Councilmember Richard Mehlinger dissenting and Councilmember Alysa Cisneros absent. Instead, councilmembers will wait about a year and half for the city to finish its study on the environmental effects of artificial turf versus natural grass before reconsidering a ban. Councilmembers Russ Melton and Linda Sell asked for another discussion on the city’s study parameters that includes best practices for managing natural grass.

Sunnyvale Alliance Soccer Club President Damon James said he is disappointed by the delay, which affects efforts by the club’s youth sports group to get better quality athletic fields. He added that delaying a decision doesn’t feel like a response to the demands of environmental groups, such as the Sierra Club.

“It just feels like kicking the can down the road while those of us who are pro- and anti-turf are still asking for changes to be made today,” James told San José Spotlight.

James was among the nearly 100 public speakers who attended Tuesday’s council meeting, alongside dozens of parents, athletes and artificial turf industry representatives who spoke against the ban. Opponents of the ban said artificial turf provides higher quality and more consistent sport fields, pointing to mud pits, broken sprinklers and uncut grass as hazards in natural grass fields.

Susan Hinton, chair of the Sierra Club Loma Prieta chapter’s plastic pollution prevention team, said the meeting demonstrated the need for more discussion around artificial turf, likening it to education about cigarettes. Hinton and other supporters of a ban say artificial turf contains harmful chemicals and leaks microplastics into water supplies, damaging the environment and endangering the health of people who play on these surfaces.

“It’s really difficult to explain that if you have repeated exposure you might get cancer or something else,” Hinton told San José Spotlight. “It’s exactly the same kind of problem that the medical folks faced when they tried to talk about cigarettes back in the 1960s, 70s, 80s.”

James told San José Spotlight his foremost priority is to provide good fields for the club’s soccer players, which is theoretically possible with natural grass fields and would be his first choice. But after conversations with city employees, James said he’s confident the city cannot provide high quality natural grass fields.

“I have played on amazing grass fields, amazing, and they were that way because they were used one hour a day and closed part of the year,” he said. “It’s unreasonable to think (the city) can provide that type of resource, given how many people want to be out on quality fields.”

The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors was also slated to consider a ban on artificial turf at its Tuesday meeting, but tabled the discussion until January.

Hinton said the county’s recommendation to create a natural grass study area in order to create best practices on how to install and upkeep natural grass fields could provide good research for government agencies exploring this debate.

Some cities such as Millbrae have already banned artificial turf, following a state law that allows local jurisdictions to do so. The Los Angeles City Council could also consider banning artificial turf after a committee motion in June.
Heavenly Greens CEO Tim Fullerton said companies across the artificial turf industry are working to resolve some issues raised around it, highlighting efforts to improve the recyclability of old artificial turf fields.

Mehlinger and Klein supported banning the installation of artificial turf while waiting for the study to conclude. While city employees said there are no plans for new artificial turf fields to be installed within the study’s two-year period, Mehlinger said there’s ample evidence to show the detriments of artificial turf.

“Even if everything that we have heard from the pro-turf arguments, including their paid scientists and lobbyists, is true, installing art turf amounts to sterilizing land. It amounts to killing open space dead,” Mehlinger said. “That alone is reason enough in my opinion to oppose it.”

Contact B. Sakura Cannestra at [email protected] or @SakuCannestra on X, formerly known as Twitter.