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Staff previews draft lighting ordinance, including curfew and sign controls; council to discuss April 20
Summary
Town planning staff briefed the Citizen Sustainability Commission on consultant recommendations for a new private-property lighting code: maximum light levels, color-temperature limits, shielded fixtures and a proposed nighttime curfew for nonessential exterior lighting. Staff said draft text is not ready and enforcement will be constrained by state law and staffing limits.
Andrea West, the town principal planner, told the Citizen Sustainability Commission that the town's consultant, Clantonis & Associates, completed recommendations in January that would update lighting rules for private and public-property (non-right-of-way) fixtures. West said the recommendations include "maximum light levels and color temperatures for external lighting," requirements for shielded and aimed fixtures to minimize uplight, new sign-lighting standards and a proposed nighttime curfew for nonessential exterior lighting.
West emphasized that the draft is a starting point and that staff and the town attorney must work through what is legally and practically enforceable. "This would require that new lighting fixtures would conform to regulations once the regulations are adopted," West said, and noted that the town cannot generally compel retrofit of fixtures that were legally installed under prior rules. Staff also said the town will not pursue International Dark Sky certification at this time because retrofitting public and utility-owned fixtures (including Dominion-owned street lights) would likely be outside the town's authority and would create major retrofit costs.
Town staff said the project produced two deliverables: proposed zoning-code updates for different land-use categories and a set of design guidelines for applicants and the Board of Architectural Review. A public survey of roughly 200'to'300 respondents produced a split of strong support and strong opposition, staff said, leaving limited middle-ground guidance to distill into enforceable code language.
The principal planner said council will hold a policy discussion on April 20; staff are not seeking adoption at that meeting but plan to return with draft code language after attorney review and referrals to the planning commission and public hearings. Staff invited the CSC to provide education and memos to town council and commissioners if the commission wants to signal support for particular policy choices.
Next steps: the commission will hear an update after council's April 20 policy discussion and staff will later present draft ordinance language for referral to the planning commission and subsequent public hearings.
