The Summit County Council on Wednesday discussed new lighting regulations to bring the Snyderville Code up to current technology. But even the new guidelines don’t cover some kinds of obtrusive lighting and Council members talked about that.
Some new buildings have huge glass facades, and the interior lights shining out can turn the structures into beacons, viewed all over the Basin. Council Member Roger Armstrong told us they would like their staff to consider some limits there.
“I’d still like to take a look at lights, staff to take a look at figuring out whether we can set a lumen boundary for the property line so that the light can transcend,” Armstrong explained. “I think we’ve got something like that now as I recall in the existing codes, but I’d like to see if we can establish some sort of a boundary so that ultra-bright lights can’t lead out to the property line.”
Armstrong said it could be done retroactively He also said the issue came up with the new Hyatt Hotel.
“The Hyatt, when they opened on 224, a lot of the neighbors across the street complained of the bright lights from the hotel,” Armstrong continued. “The hotel was nice in their response, they actually put in some window treatments and did some other things to try and soften the light. We heard a lot about it for a number of months before they were able to resolve the issue. Some of the neighbors had to go so far as to put their own window treatment to try and block out the light. We’d like to avoid that.”
Armstrong has often talked about the impact of outside lights for Christmas and other holiday seasons. One factor, he said, is the new lighting technology that the county is preparing for.
“It’s changed, not so much the amount of Christmas lighting that we have around town and I think we all appreciate that and its awfully pretty in the winter time,” Armstrong said. “Some of the lighting itself has changed. LED lights have come along they’re energy efficient but they’re also in some cases much, much brighter. I’ve seen in some of these trees, some of the white trees in particular are extraordinarily bright.”
He said they’re trying to strike a balance to preserve the night skies that so many people cherish.
“We live here and walking outside looking up in the night sky and seeing a billion stars is still something that I think we all enjoy, and I’d hate to see it go away,” Armstrong explained. “I can remember the earthquake in 1994 in Los Angeles 4:30 in the morning we walked outside after the earthquake and because it knocked out so much power, we could see stars again. It’s something you don’t see in bright sky environments and we’re just trying to maintain control of that. A lot of people move here from other places and they bring the lighting treatments that they’re used to, landscape lighting, up lighting on houses and trees and that kind of stuff diminishes the night sky so we’re just trying to protect that.”
