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Resident asks city to choose warmer LED streetlights to reduce glare and light pollution
Summary
A resident asked Wooster officials to request amber (lower color-temperature) LED fixtures instead of very white/blue LEDs during the city—s streetlight upgrade to reduce glare, protect aging eyes and limit effects on wildlife.
A Wooster resident urged council to ask the utility to install warmer-color LED streetlights as the city upgrades fixtures.
Tate Emerson told council the new full-cutoff LED fixtures currently being installed produce a "very white and blue" light that creates glare and additional light pollution compared with the softer amber light residents currently see. Emerson cited Dark Sky International guidance recommending LED color temperatures of 3,000 K or lower and said high-color-temperature lights can create vision problems for older residents and negative impacts on wildlife.
"The color temperature of those lights is a very white and blue light. It's kind of, like a harsh white industrial light as opposed to a soft warm amber light that we have right now," Emerson said.
Council members noted that a separate community reinvestment grant project is looking at "dark-sky" and lighting options and said staff and partners are considering fixture choices; no procurement or funding action occurred during the meeting.
