Yucca Valley Planning Commission on Outdoor Lighting Ordinance: “If we don’t enforce it then it’s just empty words”
The Planning Commission focused on two standards of the Outdoor Lighting and Night Sky Ordinance: Fully Shielded, which states any outdoor lighting fixtures must not direct light onto adjacent property, and Light Trespass, which prohibits “nuisance glare” from any lighting onto neighboring property that interferes with viewing of night sky.
During public comment, Yucca Valley resident Diane Hartl spoke in passionate defense of dark skies with emphasis on animal navigation and human sleep patterns, concurring with the Ordinance’s standards of downward facing lights and low wattage. Commissioner Vasconcelos agreed there should be some level of enforcing the Ordinance but was weary about new residents complaining.
“At the same time I don’t wanna see it get to be the point where I see people moving to our community and they don’t like the lighting of their neighbors lights and then they report them because they’re saying their lights are too bright and those lights have been the same lights that have been there for thirty years,” said Vasconcelos.
Commissioner Stoker spoke in agreement of more enforcement, emphasizing a reduction of light must follow the increasing growth of Yucca Valley as more homes and businesses are built, suggesting no more than 3000 kelvin standards like Aldi and Chipotle uses.
“I think as we grow, if we were to stay the same way we are right now we would start to see our sky get brighter and brighter as we add more homes or more businesses in town. I think this is our opportunity to make sure that as we grow, we kind of keep this where we are with our light canopy and if we could help to reduce that light canopy as businesses replace some of their parking lot lights or things that are burning very blue or extremely white light right now,” said Stoker.
Chair Thomas explicitly stated he wanted the Outdoor Lighting and Night Sky Ordinance clearly enforced.
“All these things are really great but if we don’t enforce it then it’s just empty words as far as I’m concerned. So we have to make sure that we have a good opponent to enforce these things on a timely schedule so when we do get complaints… probably most of the complaints will come from commercial divisions especially up and down the highway and stuff, so I’d like to see something that we discuss between council and the planning commissioners how are we going to implement this stuff and how are we going to enforce it so that we don’t have things lagging,” said Thomas.
While no action was taken, the Board voted 4/0 to receive and file the report for further discussion.
