Draper settles lawsuit over 11 p.m. cap on soccer arena operation

Draper • After an 11-month dispute between an indoor amateur sports arena and the city, council members ended the fight Tuesday night during less than six minutes of discussion, granting Soccer City the right to stay open until midnight.

Council members approved the change on a 4-1 vote. Permission for the extra hour of operation means Soccer City, 757 W. 11400 South, will drop a 3rd District lawsuit filed after the council in December rejected the requested amendment to the business's 2012 conditional-use permit in an area previously zoned for agriculture. At that time, the council had narrowly approved (3-2) a request by Soccer City to remove the city's ban on Sunday opening.

The newly approved settlement requires Soccer City to pay Draper $12,000 for its legal expenses and mandates that the 80,000-square-foot soccer, basketball and volleyball facility install a gate on the private access road that leads to 700 West. The gate is to be closed and locked at 10 p.m.

The agreement states that "it is clearly understood and agreed by the parties that" midnight is the close of operation "not the last starting time of an event." Councilman Alan Summerhays, who cast the lone dissenting vote, said in an interview after the meeting that that part of the agreement is essentially meaningless because it is unlikely that the city would send an officer to enforce it.

"We've changed that and changed that down in that area so much that those people down there don't trust the city at all," he said in an interview. "I think [Soccer City has] probably been in 10 or 12 times for different changes, and every time we change it. ... They should've got their ducks in a row in the beginning and done it right."

Describing himself as a former supporter of Soccer City, Summerhays said he now stands with neighbors who complain about the facility's noise and lighting.

"Just for the people down there, they've been beat to hell as far as it goes," he said, pointing to the sparse public attendance at Tuesday's meeting. "It used to be packed" for the Soccer City issue.

Councilwoman Marsha Vawdrey said she thought the resolution was "fair" and moved to approve it.

Councilman Bill Colbert said he initially didn't plan to back the amendment, but the wording in the agreement changed his mind.

Installing that gate should alleviate concerns of neighbors who complained that lights gleamed into their homes, he said, and he liked the wording clarifying the intent of extending operating hours.

City Manager David Dobbins acknowledged continuing concerns amid the compromise.

"This attempts to solve the issues," Dobbins said. "It does not eliminate all the issues. This is an attempt to mitigate it to an acceptable level, and maybe some don't find it acceptable, but it's clear what [Soccer City's] obligations are and if they were to violate those, they would risk the revocation of the permit."