Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: How does your community handle outdoor lighting?

[KAREN A CARLSON (kcarlson2]

Dawn:  Everything Alan says makes great sense. I don't know about rural areas 
but  a number of cities have a "night sky" ordinance which prohibit lighting 
that escapes upward. As a dog walker not only do I resent private households 
lighting public spaces (eg sidewalk) but I really dislike the "cool" spectrum 
lights that are too bright and are uncomfortable to view when contrasted with 
darkness.
Our community went thru a long process to decide how much lighting was needed 
to be on all the time (vs motion activated) in our large underground garage. A 
good compromise was reached as everyone felt they had input.
 If possible in your setting see if various placement of motion activated 
lights will be acceptable to all. 

Karen Carlson
Arboretum Cohousing
Madison, Wi
Sent from my iPhone

> On Jun 7, 2019, at 8:44 AM, Alan O'Hashi via Cohousing-L <cohousing-l [at] 
> cohousing.org> wrote:
> 
> Dawn - The first thing, there are no rigorous data that indicate more 
> "public" lighting equals less crime. Not that any of this is applicable, but 
> in the People's Republic of Boulder, Colorado I happened to be on the city 
> Planning Board at the time the city placed a huge shroud on the lights of 
> Boulder.
> 
> Where I live, there is minimal street lighting and it's very dark. Dog 
> walkers and pedestrians use flashlights. Lights must have sconces that reduce 
> the amount of light that escapes upward/outward and focuses the light 
> downward. Even on our private community property, the sidewalk lights focus 
> the light downward. We have lighting on the outdoor stairways that are 
> positioned under the bannisters.
> 
> There are engineering companies that specialize in lighting. I suggest that 
> during your due diligence process you contact one to ask them about the best 
> type of lighting for your particular community. In a rural area, I would 
> think that light pollution would be particularly noticeable. People live in 
> sparsely populated areas, in part, because of the dark skies.
> 
> Thx,
> Alan O. 
> 
> *******************************************
> Alan O'Hashi - ECOS
> EnviroCultural Organization Systems
> http://www.alanohashi.com/ecos
> Colorado 303-910-5782
> Wyoming 307-274-1910
> Nebraska 402-327-1652
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