Sonoma family OK’d to build shield against onslaught of baseballs

Batters at Sonoma Valley High School’s new baseball field are “going yard” in more ways than one these days.

That’s what Sonoma residents Robyn and Chris Sebastiani discovered this past year, following the opening of the high school’s new sports complex.

The facility includes a state-of-the-art baseball diamond with an outfield fence that backs up to the Sebastianis’ home along MacArthur Lane.

“I love baseball, but not when baseballs are flying in our backyard,” Robyn Sebastiani told the Sonoma Planning Commission during its Sept. 15 meeting.

The Sebastianis’ 6,352-square-foot parcel sits just north of the baseball diamond’s left field, a common location for home runs.

The couple has applied to the city for a “variance,” or exception to the city’s barring of construction near the property line, in order to erect a 580-square-foot safety covering to shield their home from the 5-ounce projectiles that can rain down whenever a batter clobbers one.

Robyn Sebastiani said that when her baseball-playing brother first saw the orientation of the new field, he warned that her house and windows would likely be targets.

“For young men, this is target practice,” she recalled him saying. “We were a little panicked.”

The field is used during the spring baseball season by the freshmen and junior varsity teams, and is rented out on weekends during the offseason to non-scholastic leagues.

Robyn Sebastiani was hoping the Planning Commission would OK the variance and allow construction of a 29-foot-by-20-foot metal covering, 14 feet at its maximum height and sloping to 11 feet at the property line fence.

“Typically, we shy away from granting variances,” Sonoma associate planner Kristina Tierney said. “But (city) staff feels this is a very unique circumstance. It is a public safety hazard.”

Robyn Sebastiani told commissioners her family purchased the home in 2017, prior to Sonoma Valley Unified School District breaking ground on the new sports facilities.

“We had no idea the school district had these plans, so you can imagine our horror,” she said.

Despite lobbying the school district to remedy the situation, she said district leaders were slow to act. Eventually, though, a net was placed above the outfield fence.

Still, Sebastiani said, balls continue to clear the net and pose a safety hazard.

“The very first time they played baseball, numerous balls came over the fence,” she said. “(Balls come over) every time a baseball game is played.”

Planning Commissioner Sheila O’Neill said she was “horrified” by the couple’s situation.

“What can we do to help these people who did not build their house on second base — but second base got built by their house?” she asked.

Her fellow Planning Commissioner Larry Barnett expressed support for the variance and questioned the field-design decision to position the batters facing a row of residential houses.

Planning Commission Chair Ron Wellander, however, said the orientation of the field “made sense,” as baseball batters need to face away from the sun.

Wellander was also surprised so many balls were landing in the Sebastiani yard, given the more than 300-foot distance and height of the netting. “That’s going to be one whale of a poke,” he said.

Wellander described a conversation he’d had with Sonoma Valley High School Athletic Director Mike Boles, who he said told him freshmen or junior varsity players with the ability to consistently hit home runs would likely be promoted to varsity, which plays at Arnold Field on First Street West.

Boles declined to comment on his conversation with Wellander when contacted by an Index-Tribune reporter.

“That said, I’m very sad that this wasn’t resolved outside (the purview) of the Planning Commission,” Wellander added.

In a 5-0 vote, the Planning Commission approve the variance request, allowing the Sebastianis to go forward with their plans to build a safety covering.

Reach Staff Writer Jason Walsh at Jason.walsh@sonomanews.com.