Parks and recreation officials opted not to renew the De Anza Youth Soccer League's field-use permit after finding that the league is not in compliance with the city's residency requirement. About 32 percent of players in the DYSL are Cupertino residents, far below the 51 percent mandated by the city.

The city council gave the DYSL a last-minute reprieve at an emergency meeting held Aug. 9, granting the league a one-year temporary use permit. Within that year, city staff will research if and how the residency requirement should be modified to accommodate sports organizations that recruit players from outside Cupertino's borders.

The DYSL came under scrutiny in March, after the council voted to increase field-use fees for nonresident players from $11 to $22 per season beginning in spring 2005. Cupertino residents will continue to pay the lower amount.

When parks and recreation officials did a head count, they discovered that the soccer league pulls players from as far away as Palo Alto, as well as Saratoga and west San Jose. Parks and Recreation director Therese Smith said this was not always true of the 25-year-old league.

"The nature of the organization has changed in the last six or seven [years] in terms of regional outreach," Smith said at an Aug. 5 meeting of the Parks and Recreation Commission. "Before that, it was mostly a Cupertino organization."

The soccer moms and dads who packed the council chambers for last week's meeting argued that since the DYSL is a highly competitive league, it's difficult to attract high-caliber players and meet the city's residency

requirement at the same time. The league is a member of the California Youth Soccer Association and is mandated to serve youth in the Cupertino and Saratoga area.

"We play under an organization that has open boundaries," said DYSL board member Pedro Cortopassi. "We do have Cupertino residents that don't play in Cupertino anymore. We have to be competitive."

"These teams are in tournaments statewide, sometimes national," said Palo Alto resident Christine Smith, whose son plays in the DYSL. "If you didn't have out-of-town players, I think it'd be really difficult to maintain those standards."

Saratoga resident Debbie Lillo, who coaches the league's under-19 boys' team, said her three children played on DYSL teams and attended Cupertino schools.

"We have very fluid school district borders," Lillo told the commission. "I'd urge you to consider a definition of the Cupertino community that's a little broader."

Parks director Smith pointed out that individual team rosters don't have to meet the residency requirement as long as the league as a whole is in compliance.

"We're not talking about excluding nonresidents: We're talking about ratios," Smith added.

Smith said the parks and recreation department might check with other cities from which the DYSL draws its players to see if their fields can bear some of the burden of hosting the league. She said player fees don't cover the $450,000 a year it costs to maintain Cupertino's soccer fields.

"Creekside Park shouldn't have to be the only center for this activity if it's going to be a regional organization," Smith added.

Others expressed concern that DYSL officials who cried foul when their field-use permit wasn't renewed already knew full well that the league wasn't meeting Cupertino's residency requirements.

Tom Haley, president of the Tri-City Little League, said the city shouldn't change its residency requirement just to accommodate the DYSL. Tri-City also uses Cupertino playing fields.

"I don't think it's right to tell [children] you can get one over on city hall," Haley said. "The important thing is to take care of the kids in this community and let them have the fields."

Commissioners agreed that Cupertino residents should have first dibs on use of the city's playing fields. Field supervisor Mike Bookspun said Cupertino's fields are in high demand, and the city has had to deny field-use permits to some organizations. Bookspun also pointed out that five of the six South Bay cities with a playing field-to-population ratio similar to Cupertino's also have residency requirements.

Commissioner Jeanne Bradford told the DYSL representatives in attendance that the city's field-use policy "needs to reflect a group larger than just your own."

"You need to work with the city and staff to at least make us feel like you're taking the issue seriously," Bradford added. "This should have been remedied very easily with much less drama."