Commission schedules public hearing on proposed dark-sky outdoor lighting ordinance

Petoskey’s planning commission voted to schedule a public hearing for Nov. 19 on a proposed outdoor lighting ordinance that staff revised following a city-attorney review and a Dark Sky review of a red-line draft.

Staff distributed a red-lined ordinance recommended by the city attorney and said the technical requirements were unchanged. The City will seek Dark Sky review; staff handed out Dark Sky comments stating the draft remains consistent with Dark Sky recommendations. Staff said, if the planning commission approves the red-line changes, the ordinance will move to city council for consideration and the city could become a recognized dark-sky jurisdiction if council adopts it.

Commissioners discussed several clarifications and edits in the draft ordinance: the numbering/placement of the preamble versus definitions, reducing redundancy in terms such as “light at night” vs. defined terms, and clarifying which zoning districts should be designated light zones LZ2 or LZ3 (several commissioners argued that three B3 subdistricts at city entryways appear similar to hospital zones and suggested reclassifying them into LZ2 to reduce ambient light; staff noted B3 corridors include denser retail and gas stations whose canopy lights are higher foot-candle levels, and that the committee mapped land uses to zoning codes following Dark Sky Association guidance).

The commission also changed a seasonal-exemption window for decorative/holiday lighting from the draft’s November 1–Jan. 15 to October 1–February (the group agreed to October 1 through February after consulting the downtown management board schedule). Commissioners asked staff to mark the foot-candle/foot-candle-to-lux conversion language as “approximately” rather than exact and asked for a minor clean-up of numbering in the definitions.

One commissioner asked the attorney to move the five principles reference to point readers to the definitions section. Dark Sky reviewers flagged sports lighting and electronic message centers for later coverage; staff said the sign ordinance will address electronic message centers.

The commission voted to schedule the public hearing for Nov. 19. The motion passed on voice vote.

Ending: Staff will prepare the public-hearing materials, incorporate agreed edits (seasonal exemption window, wording clarifications and definition linkage), and post the ordinance for the Nov. 19 public hearing.