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Trustees approve commercial zoning text amendment tightening green-space buffers and outdoor-lighting rules
Summary
Trustees approved a text amendment to the town's commercial zoning ordinance that establishes three buffer options (25', 40', or 50'), requires interior placement of fencing, clarifies owner maintenance duties, and caps outdoor-light color temperature and trespass. The change passed after public comment urging shorter compliance timelines and dark-sky alignment.
The Town of Hochatown Board of Trustees approved a text amendment to the town's commercial zoning regulations that raises standards for green-space buffers and outdoor lighting.
Jessica, the planning presenter, described three buffer options: a 25-foot option combining a fence and plantings, a 40-foot option requiring a continuous, year-round opaque visual barrier, and a 50-foot option that preserves existing underbrush or requires hedgerows if preservation is infeasible. "I have added a requirement that the fencing has to be on the interior side of the buffer," Jessica said, explaining that the measure is intended so neighbors see landscaping rather than fencing.
The amendment places responsibility for buffer maintenance with the property owner and requires replacement plantings to be of similar type or native species when feasible. On lighting, the draft adds a color-temperature cap (capped at 4,000 kelvins in the proposal, with dark-sky guidance at 3,000 kelvins noted) and sets light trespass limits (0.2 foot-candles measured at grade) and exemptions for low-output decorative fixtures. Jessica said the draft includes a provision prohibiting strobing and flashing lights from rights-of-way and residential or agricultural districts.
Trustees and residents pushed back on a proposed 20-year compliance timeline for bringing nonconforming fixtures into compliance. Several trustees said they preferred a shorter timetable; one trustee said "5 to 10 years" would be comfortable. Jessica said 10 to 20 years is typical in other communities and offered to redline the draft to shorten the window if the board wished.
Supporters in the public comment period welcomed the added landscaping and buffering as a way to reduce visual impacts and some lighting. A resident who lives near Stevens Gap urged the board to adopt a shorter compliance period if the town seeks a dark-sky designation, noting that lingering nonconformities would delay such an effort.
The board voted to adopt the text amendment as proposed and directed staff to return revised drafts or redlines reflecting any timeline changes and, if desired, stronger dark-sky alignment. The approval was recorded as a formal action following the public hearing; no ordinance number or effective date was stated in the portion of the transcript provided.
