Guest Article in the North Raleigh News, The News & Observer

January 21, 2000

The Raleigh City Council is considering tightening Raleigh's lighting ordinance. As a person who has noticed the increase in excessive lighting and sky glow around Raleigh and Cary, and a member of the International Dark-Sky Association, I'm very interested in this issue.

The primary goal of the new ordinance is to address "light trespass" between residential properties. There is no intention of limiting the amount of light property owners shine on their own property.

There are many reasons for lighting at night. We need visibility, security, safety and an attractive nighttime environment around us. However, far too much of our present nighttime lighting does not meet its objectives. Let's look at the major components of bad outdoor lighting:

A comprehensive lighting ordinance takes all of the above into consideration.

Raleigh's current lighting ordinance takes a simple form. Light output, usually expressed in foot-candles, can be measured with a hand-held light meter. If light from a commercial property reaches the property line of a residence with a brightness of more than four-tenths of a foot-candle, the neighbor has grounds for a complaint.

Under both the current and new ordinances, a simple meter reading is all it takes. The remedy is expected to be the addition of shielding in most cases. Fines can be levied to help with enforcement.

The necessity to add a residential clause appears to have arisen out of an increasing number of neighborhood squabbles involving overly bright lights.

The large home-improvement superstores have begun selling industrial-grade lighting to average consumers under the guise of added security. The cost of buying, properly installing and powering one of these lights probably costs more over 10 years than a real security system with window and door sensors.

The biggest problem with these lights is that the vast majority provide no shielding to prevent both glare and the lighting of a neighbor's house or the sky.

Most are the inefficient mercury vapor type. Many leave proper pointing completely up to the consumer. This leads to problems as people try to light too big an area by pointing the lights horizontally. The stores do not make shielding available as an option.

Consumers should demand shielding, high efficiency and the availability of recessed lamps to avoid unintended light trespass.

The Illumination Engineering Society of North America makes specific recommendations for almost every outdoor lighting situation. For example, the light level at the pump island of a gas station is recommended to be 10 foot-candles in a bright urban setting. This is much less than what is being installed at many new gas stations.

These recommendations are utilized by professional lighting engineers to design lighting that matches the situation without wasting their customers' money on excessive lighting.

There is an appropriate design for every situation, and trained lighting professionals can help.

Across the nation, communities are struggling with this issue. There are many initiatives in place or in process at the state and local levels. Many are incorporating the IES guidelines into ordinances, in addition to specifying light trespass limitations and shielding requirements.

The International Dark-Sky Association is a nonprofit organization that supports and promotes the use of well-designed outdoor lighting through education and research. Visit the IDA online at www.darksky.org.

North Carolina IDA members will hold an educational and informational meeting in Raleigh on Wednesday, Jan 26, 2000, at 7 p.m. This meeting is open to anyone interested. Contact dlakey@mindspring.com or look online at http://metalab.unc.edu/ncida (or http://www.ncdarksky.org/) for directions.

With quality outdoor lighting, everyone wins. Glare reduction gives us better sight and safety, and by controlling light trespass and sky glow, we conserve energy and preserve the beauty of our night skies.