Model lighting ordinance for your city

By Michael on February 11, 2009 at 12:51 pm | In Blog Posts | 3 Comments

You live somewhere, yes? Chances are you live in a place that has a local government which has authority to create guidelines for activities within its jurisdiction. Where I live, these are called City Councils and lighting ordinances for new construction are within their purview.

You, as their constituent, have more voice than you are probably aware. If you go to your City Council or equivalent they will listen to you. They won’t necessarily act in your favor but they will, for sure, listen to you.

Light pollution is a lose-lose scenario. Said more positively, smart lighting saves money and is more safe than lights which create light pollution. You don’t have to be an astronomer to understand that light should be directed where needed and should not shine where/when it is not needed or unwelcome. To me, that is just obvious.

So the International Dark Sky Association (IDA) is doing a very, very smart thing. They are creating a model lighting ordinance that you can propose to your City Council. Just print it out, go to a meeting (or even meet with City Councilors individually) and tell them you want them to put this on the agenda, debate it and bring it to a vote. Insist that they do so. If they seem unwilling to listen to you, get a bunch of your neighbors to sign a petition saying you insist that they consider adopting an ordinance based on the model lighting ordinance.

The IDA is currently seeking feedback on the model lighting ordinance. If you are an astronomer, a developer, a corporation, lobbyist, public servant or someone who lives somewhere, take a moment to read the ordinance and let the IDA know if you think it can be improved.

I really believe that we can ultimately win the war against light pollution and bring the beauty of the night sky back to our cities. At the same time we will be safer and we’ll be saving money. I applaud the IDA for working towards this goal.

3 Comments »

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  1. I agree that this issue is a total no-brainer. In fact, my city council (in Osseo) is considering new streetscape lighting and just the other day I emailed my mayor, explaining this issue to him and pointing him to the many great resources on the subject.

    Of course, you know I can’t very well completely agree with you on anything. I vehemently disagree that cities should create or modify ordinances concerning light pollution. Cities themselves should make the right choices of lighting fixtures, for economic reasons and for all of the other great reasons. They should set a good example for their neighbors. They should join us in educating the public on this issue. They should not impose new restrictions on people’s right to use their own property as they wish, so long as they do not injure or damage the property of their neighbors.

    Comment by mnphenow — February 11, 2009 #

  2. A couple years ago members of my club were able to convince a local town to avoid chandelier style street lighting, and instead opt for sanity. Better lighting for less up front, and less in the future. I don’t think light pollution was mentioned. But growth in that direction has made it worse for the observatory. No getting around it.

    Comment by suitti — February 11, 2009 #

  3. I am a professional lighting designer (indoor and outdoor) and an amateur astronomer. Having just reviewed the IDA’s Model Lighting Ordinance, I agree that this is a very good thing that they are doing. Working on a recent retail project near Siding Spring Observatory, the local council had a code (at least they were aware of the issue) but it was quite poorly written by people who were trying to do the right thing but didn’t have the technical knowledge to achieve their goal. As a result, the code failed to provide developers with guidelines and restrictions that were reasonable and quantifiable, and it failed to adequately project dark skies. The Model Lighting Ordinance will definitely improve the protection of dark skies by making it easy for local councils to implement a robust code. Well done, IDA!

    mnphenow: Someone spraying light in all directions on an adjacent property definitely impacts on my ability to use my property as I wish (eg, for astronomy). Shouldn’t I have protection from that? Councils setting an example is not enough, developers need to be rail-roaded into being considerate neighbours (I know, I work for a lot of them).

    Comment by tblaxland — February 18, 2009 #

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