San Juan Unified School District is weighing an $8 million plan to transform Rio Americano High School's modest football stadium into a full-fledged venue with permanent lights, a press box and thousands more seats — and it's dividing the Arden Arcade neighborhood that surrounds it. The proposal would boost seating from just 288 spots to roughly 2,575, add four 80-foot light poles and install an upgraded sound system, changes supporters say are long overdue for a campus of nearly 2,000 students.
A Campus That Outgrew Its Own Stadium
As reported by KCRA, the Rio Americano varsity football team currently plays its home games at El Camino High School, less than three miles away, because its own stadium can't accommodate crowds or night games. According to ABC10, the stadium currently lacks adequate lighting altogether, forcing teams to rely on portable generators just to practice or play after dark. The district says the upgrades are meant to better serve a campus that has grown to nearly 2,000 students, per the same station's reporting.
Beyond football, the renovated stadium could also host graduation ceremonies, pep rallies and other sporting events, KCRA reports. Shauna Cvetovac, a Rio Americano graduate whose son played football at the school, told the station she was surprised to learn the school had no lights and even less seating than it once did. Supporters like Cvetovac want to see the Arden Arcade school finally host its own home games and large events on its own campus, a sentiment echoed in reporting from Abridged.
Neighbors Push Back Over Noise and Light
Not everyone on the other side of the fence is thrilled. Joe Selewicz, who has lived in the neighborhood for more than 20 years, told KCRA that the existing goalposts already sit less than a football field away from his backyard — and he's wary of what permanent lighting and amplified sound would bring. He said five or six nighttime event nights a year would be tolerable, but he's received no commitment from the district about how often such events would actually occur.
Dale Vaira, another nearby resident, said stadium events would affect animals along the American River Parkway and bring extra traffic, litter and noise into the neighborhood, according to KCRA's reporting. Those worries aren't new: Abridged notes that opponents have raised concerns about increased noise levels, the glare of bright stadium lights, traffic and broader effects on the parkway since the proposal first surfaced. Neighbors have also raised concerns about noise and extra traffic around the school.
What the Environmental Report Found
The district's draft Environmental Impact Report, published in early September, projects that average noise at some nearby residences could reach approximately 61 decibels during large nighttime events, and that event noise could run as much as 15 decibels above existing nighttime background levels at the nearest eastern residences, per KCRA. The report states that the increase could be clearly noticeable and disruptive during sensitive evening hours, especially during the louder portions of football games.
Noise from cheering crowds, marching bands and a louder sound system was identified as one of the most significant and unavoidable consequences of the project, even with mitigation, Abridged reports. Proposed noise measures include restrictions on amplified sound, limits on certain noise-making devices and set ending times for nighttime events, according to KCRA. The district says it is reviewing community feedback as part of the environmental review process now underway.
Timeline: What Happens Next
The draft report's public comment period ran 45 days, from Sept. 2 through Oct. 16, and has now closed, San Juan Unified confirms. The district is preparing a final Environmental Impact Report that will respond to the comments it received, with that final report scheduled to go before the San Juan Unified School District Board of Education on Nov. 17 for consideration and potential approval. As of now, the stadium improvement project has received no final approval.
San Juan Unified has pointed to a nearby precedent in making its case: Jesuit High School installed permanent stadium lighting in 2024, and district officials have said the Rio Americano upgrades would bring the campus closer in line with that nearby Catholic school's facilities, per Abridged's reporting. Earlier environmental scoping input also called for studying traffic conditions in scenarios where games at Rio Americano and Jesuit occur simultaneously, according to the district.
Permanent stadium lighting fights are not unique to Arden Arcade. A San Francisco high school's bid to install four 90-foot light standards in a residential neighborhood ended up in court, with a judge ruling the project was not categorically exempt from environmental review, according to a legal analysis from DWK. In that case, permanent lights would have allowed up to 150 stadium evenings a year, compared with roughly 40 to 50 evenings under temporary lighting — a jump in usage that fueled much of the opposition there. Whether Rio Americano's board ultimately approves its own stadium plan next month remains an open question for a neighborhood still waiting on answers about just how often those new lights will shine.
