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May 2010:
Join Texas IDA at the annual Texas Star Party from May 9-15,
2010 at the historic Prude Ranch near Ft. Davis, Texas.
Texas IDA Coordinator and dark-sky advocates from around
the state will be present to discuss dark-sky issues and
current activities at our roundtable daytime talk on May
13th from 3:30-4:30pm in the TSP meeting hall.
In addition, see our display, pick-up a copy of our
annual newsletter, and complete our survey at registration
in the meeting hall all week long.
Hope to see you all under the dark-skies of West Texas!
January 2010:
Rowlett, Texas in the
News (The Rowlett Lakeshore Times Star)
Looking for dark
skies
Published: Friday, October 30, 2009
12:29 AM CDT
During the joint
work session on Tuesday, the City
Council and the Planning and Zoning
Commission discussed a philosophy
dubbed the “dark skies movement,”
which seeks to decrease light
pollution throughout the city of
Rowlett.
Growing in popularity among
environmentalists, the dark skies
movement encourages the use of full
cutoff light fixtures, which cast
little or no light upward.
Proponents suggest that lights be
turned off when not needed, and that
shut-off controls such as sensors,
timers and motion detectors be used
whenever possible. Energy is wasted
when light spills up to the sky or
is used when not needed or if
fixtures use more wattage than
necessary. Bad lighting can also
diminish security and may even
attract criminals, giving them
places to hide in the deep shadows
created by bright, glary light.
Glare can also blind drivers.
Light pollution has a price tag,
too. Estimates show that light waste
costs Americans at least $2 billion
annually.
The increase in the number of people
living in urban areas has resulted
in a rapid increase in urban sky
glow due to outdoor lighting and
light pollution. Light pollution
wastes energy, compromises safety
and security, and can cause the loss
of enjoyment of the night sky for
citizens of the community. Some of
the fundamental solutions to light
pollution include only using lights
where necessary, shielding bulbs to
reduce glare and wasted light, and
the use of low wattage,
energy-efficient bulbs.
“One of the worst polluters in this
city is the water towers,” said
Planning and Zoning Commissioner
Chris Cigainero.
City Manager Lynda Humble indicated
water towers are traditionally lit
at night because they’re considered
a form of marketing for the city.
Mayor Pro Tem Steve Maggiotto said
he did not believe the water towers
were useful as marketing tools due
to their location.
“If they are not going to be used
for marketing, we can just turn the
lights off,” Humble said.
The purpose of the city’s current
outdoor lighting code is to provide
adequate lighting for safety and
convenience, in scale with the
activity, directed to the surface of
the activity, and to contribute to a
pleasant nighttime environment.
There have been many changes in the
lighting industry including
increased energy costs, improvements
in technologies, and the cost of
energy saving products. The main
reasons for updating the existing
code include energy savings and
preserving the night sky.
The city of Rowlett is currently
using more energy-efficient bulbs
when and where they can be used. The
city uses LED bulbs in all traffic
lights. When a street light burns
out, Oncor replaces the mercury
vapor bulb with a high pressure
sodium vapor bulb for increased
energy savings.
“Oncor puts in the energy efficient
bulbs, but we see nothing from it,”
said Planning and Zoning
Commissioner Rick Sheffield.
“With Oncor just trying to get poles
straightened is a challenge. [The
city] can ask Oncor to be mindful of
what we are trying to do,” Humble
said.
At the March 31 joint meeting, Mayor
John Harper asked that a committee
be formed to research the dark skies
movement and how some of it might be
beneficial to the city.
The council wanted to know the
additional costs of implementing the
dark skies requirements, the
potential changes in appearance of
the city if new businesses adopt the
practices but old businesses do not,
the potential energy savings and
whether or not personal safety would
be reduced if parking lot lighting
were decreased.
The committee recommended that the
council allow only fully
shielded/full cut-off fixtures,
prohibiting mercury vapor lights and
other high energy consuming lamps,
limiting parking lot lighting after
hours, requiring all security
lighting fixtures to be shielded and
aimed so that illumination is
directed only on the owner’s
property, requiring all new light
poles to have meters, prohibiting
the operation of searchlights,
strobes or pulsating lights of
searchlights, requiring security
lights intended to illuminate inside
the property line to have motion
sensors and timers to ensure lights
are on only when it is dark,
prohibit up-lighting of signs or
monuments unless shielded, consider
a retrofitting deadline, and require
all luminaries mounted under a
canopy to be flush with the lower
surface of canopies.
“Retrofitting in this economy
doesn’t make a lot of sense. As far
as establishing standards for new
buildings, I am all for it,” Harper
said.
“I suggest thinking about putting an
ordinance in place that allows
retrofitting to take place five or
six years out,” Maggiotto said.
The council decided to schedule a
future work session so that more
information about the time frame and
cost of retrofitting could be
gathered.
IDA Annual Meeting and
Conference held in Phoenix, Arizona: November, 2009
Texas IDA section leader, Benjamin Jones, had the
opportunity to attend the IDA Annual General Meeting this
past November over the course of 3 days in the beautiful
city of Phoenix, Arizona.
The topic of this years conference was "Sustainable
Skies: Achieving sustainability through the preservation of
our nightscape." Within this overarching topic, there were
three subtopics that were exemplified by the panoply of
speakers within each category: greenbuilding and sustainable
design, planning and policy, and night culture.
One of the more interesting talks was that given by Mr.
Jason Tuenge of the U.S. Department of Energy on the
progress of outdoor LED luminaires. Mr. Tuenge discussed a
new DOE classification program, Fitted Target Efficacy,
which will fit within the broader EnergyStar criteria to
evaluate the efficacy of outdoor luminaires (including LEDs).
Many audience members were impressed by the strides that the
DOE was making to steer LED luminaire technology in the
right direction while keeping the concerns of the dark-sky
community in mind. Nevertheless, after the presentation,
there seemed to be a rather heated exchange between some IDA
members and Mr. Tuenge regarding the coloring/spectral issue
of emitted light from LEDs. Most LEDs currently utilized as
outdoor lights emit most of their light within the
blue/white part of the spectrum, which, from the dark-sky
standpoint, is terrible. Blue/white light is not only
harsher on the human eye at night, but almost impossible to
filter out using standard astronomical filters (which can
mostly filter out skyglow that is orange in color). This
will obviously be an ongoing debate as LEDs continue to
develop.
Another interesting presentation was given by Dr. Mario
Motta on the American Medical Association's decision to
recognize light pollution as a problem that can and must be
solved for human health reasons. On June 16, 2009, the AMA
unanimously passed Resolution 516 decreeing that the AMA
advocate for energy efficient outdoor lighting and support
light pollution reduction and glare reduction efforts at the
national and state level. Dr. Motta himself was the main
driver behind the AMA's adoption of such a resolution.
There were a series of talks given by Dr. Richard Poss
and Dr. Cameran Ashraf on Astronomy in the Arts and The
Night Sky as a Cultural Landscape, respectively. Both these
gentlemen presented cases for the preservation of the night
sky from a purely cultural and historical perspective, by
relating the mysteries and mystique of a dark-sky to the
development of cultures and histories of civilizations
across the world.
Lastly, our own Gil Bartee (Alpine, TX) gave a
presentation of the dark-sky preservation efforts that he
and McDonald Observatory are making out in the West Texas
area. Lots of great stuff happening out there!
For a complete list of speakers and access to their
PowerPoint presentations, visit the IDA's website here:
http://www.darksky.org/mc/page.do?sitePageId=55062&orgId=idsa
All in all, the conference was a blast and I highly
recommend that all who are concerned about this movement
attend next year. You never know who you might meet and what
you might learn!
-Benjamin Jones
October 2009:
Alpine (Texas) Dark Sky
Party – October 16th, 17th and 18th.
In
conjunction with
the International Year of Astronomy, the 400th anniversary
of Galileo and the telescope please
join us in the celebration of Dark Sky Month in Alpine
Texas.
The
month of October has been designated by the Alpine City
Council as Dark Sky Month to educate and inform citizens,
businesses and property owners regarding the use of safe,
efficient and appropriate lighting, with the goal of
preserving the treasure of Alpine’s night sky, and working
towards being designated as an International Dark Sky
Association Dark Sky Community. The City of Alpine
Environmental Advisory Board and the Bid Bend Astronomical
Society are working together to coordinate the Alpine Dark
Sky efforts.
Community events during the month of October include dark
sky presentations at area schools and at the Sul Ross State
University
Planetarium
and Dark Sky Parties at Sierra la Rana and Luz de Estrella
Winery. The International Dark Sky Association will also
have a traveling display that will be exhibited at area
schools and at Sul Ross State University.
Achieving the status of a Dark Sky Community will benefit
the health of the citizens of Alpine, protect local
wildlife, spur eco-tourism and economic development, will
reduce overall energy consumption, and will likewise benefit
the Big Bend region as a whole and the McDonald Observatory
in particular. Together with the work that Big Bend National
Park is doing to preserve the night skies, this area will be
one of the largest Dark Sky Regions in the US.
During
Dark Sky Month, the Dark Sky Working group will submit a
series of articles in local news papers on the following
topics:
·
The McDonald Observatory
·
Star Parties
·
Economic advantages of Dark Skies and IDA Dark Sky Community
Designation
·
Practical information on retrofitting light fixtures with
Dark Sky Friendly fixtures.
Sierra
la Rana will host star parties on the 16th and 17th
of October. The star parties will start at dusk and will
include presentations and star viewing with multiple
telescopes. There will be a “Black Hole” presentation at the
Sul Ross Planetarium at 2:00 pm on October 16th
and Bill Wren of the McDonald Observatory will make a dark
sky presentation at Sierra la Rana on Saturday the 17th
at the beginning of the star party. Dark Sky speakers
who wish to make a presentation during Dark Sky Month are
encouraged to contact us.
Luz De
Estrella Winery in Marfa (3 miles east of Marfa on Hwy 90)
will host a Star Party, Jam Session, Potluck Dinner and Wine
Tasting on October 18th. Festivities commence at
4:30 pm on Sunday -- Local and Austin musicians and singers
will meet at the winery at about 4:30 for a potluck meal and
wine-tasting. Everyone, professional musicians and singers
as well as rank amateurs, are encouraged to participate.
When it gets dark, we'll start the Star Party. Experts will
be on hand to interpret, and we expect to have several
telescopes. And you may have the good fortune to witness the
Marfa lights as well. Contact Luz de Estrella Winery at
432.729.3434
for more information.
The
James T. Walker Dark Sky Fund has been established by the
Big Bend Astronomical Society to assist property owners who
chose to replace non Dark Sky Friendly fixtures with Dark
Sky Friendly fixtures. Members of the Dark Sky working group
will also provide light assessments free of charge to
property owners and local businesses. Tax-deductible
contributions to the JTWDSF can be mailed to the BBAS c/o
Bernie Zelazny, PO Box 523, Alpine, TX 79831-0523.
More information on the Dark Sky Fund can be found at
http://www.bigbenddarkskies.com/donation.html
Contact:
Bernie Zelazny
Contact: Gil Bartee
Phone: 432-238-4747
Phone: 817-975-8736
Email:
bdz@apcwizard.com
Email:
gbartee@swbell.net
July 2009:
- The City of Port
Aransas recently enacted an outdoor lighting ordinance
that will work toward protecting the pristine skies of
the Texas Gulf Coast. To read the ordinance,
click
here
- The International
Dark-Sky Association's (IDA) annual business meeting
took place on June 30 and provided an overview of IDA's
goals, ambitions, and accomplishments of the past year.
There was also a Q&A session where IDA members could ask
the board questions. Texas IDA's founding coordinator,
Julie Schaar, provided the following highlights from the
meeting:
Dark-Sky Association Annual Business
Meeting 2008 June 30, 2009 A Year of Transition
Other details from the Annual
Conference:
The Director of the director of the
Washington D.C. office, established in March 2009 by private
donations, gave a full report.
This office is focusing on energy
efficienty and conservation by holding Briefings for
Congress again this year;
--collaborating with other NGO
organizations with similar interests;
--working with D of E in developing
research projects (e.g.on LED impart on the enironment and
human health); and
--working with the National Parks on
standards for Dark Sky Parks.
--A Wilderness Standards Summit will be
held in Fall 2009 to discuss standards for Dark Sky sites.
DC office is also
--doing a Streetlight Policy Survey in
50 states, which will be presented at the Annual Conference
in Nov., and is
--involved in a Chicago project to
retrofit their streetlings.
The Annual Conference will be at Hotel
Wyndham Phoenix Nov. 13 to 15, 2009, and will include a
special tour of Flagstaff outdoor lighting. See
www.darksky.org for AA and Hotel discounts.
New Publications to look for on
www.darksky.org or google:
--Nightnet (for sections)
--Night Watch (e-news)
--Nightscape (quarterly publication)
--Specifier Bulletin
--Practical Guides (replacing the
former Information Sheets)
Four Questions were presented that were
previously submitted by members.:
1. Q.Why abandon the concept of NO
light above 90 degrees above nadir?
A.: IDA has not certified any
luminaires emitting light above 90 degrees.
2. Q. When will we receive a written
response from the Board about the MLO petition to scrap the
MLO?
A. The MLO Task Force is to
present its responses (and report on the review process) to
the Board by August 2009.
3. Q. Term limits for Board?
A. The Board will consider this
question at their July meeting. It is difficult to limit
terms for an all-volunteer Board. However, Chris Monrad (pres).has
served for 16 years and Dan Brocious (Sec.) has served for
nearly 20 years.
4. Q. About Board and Committee
members whose vocation is primarily with the lighting
industry.
A. The IDA website will list all Board committees
soon. Terry McGowan is chair of the Technical Committee,
which has the largest tasks to accomplish, and could use
volunteers on this committee
Here is a link to the entire
PowerPoint presentation given by IDA:
http://docs.darksky.org/AGM/Business/AnnualReport2008_2009.ppt#256,1,International
December 2008:
Skies over McDonald Observatory
are brightening, slowly (Asher Price, Austin
American Statesman)
MCDONALD OBSERVATORY — On a recent moonless,
inky night, Bill Wren made his way around the
catwalk that rims the Harlan J. Smith Tele scope.
He flicked on his small, red-bulbed flashlight
to find a hand railing and, stopping here and
there,used his cane to point out indoor lights:
perhaps an incandescent above a stove, maybe a
reading lamp, all in the valley about four miles
away. Low on the horizon hung the vague glow of
Van Horn and El Paso.
The
McDonald Observatory, perched atop the Davis
mountains, is the darkest spot in North America
suitable for astronomical research. But despite
staff efforts to dim the lights in nearby towns,
the night skies over McDonald Observatory, which
is owned and operated by the University of
Texas, are developing a form of pollution more
familiar to city-dwellers: Man-made light
outshines the stars.
The
sky above McDonald is still soupy with celestial
bodies. The Milky Way stretches out overhead,
shooting stars (actually meteors) are easy to
spot, and one doesn't even need to connect the
dots of the zodiac, so plainly visible are the
constellations.
But
the brightest spot on the night sky, second to
the moon, is the glow of El Paso, about 200
miles away. Astronomers who cast their
telescopic gaze over the night sky — one project
is a search for dark energy, which has the
opposite effect of gravity, in more than one
million galaxies — say they have to correct
their results for the glare from artificial
lights.
For
years, the observatory has spent time and money
to get nearby cities and counties to pass rules
that require outdoor lights to be recessed and
directed downward and to pay for the fitting of
old exterior lights with shades.
Wren,
52, a dark sky specialist who has worked at the
observatory since 1990, spends his time writing
letters and visiting cities and burgs as far
away as Nacogdoches (a 700-mile drive) to ask
officials to tamp down their lights. The 1960s
and 1970s were a terrible time for lighting
design, he says, and the nation still has to
cope with what he derides as "insecurity
lighting," the pouring out of light across
highways and city streets.
Besides the astronomical benefits, focusing
light downward on the spots meant to be
illuminated shaves energy costs and makes for
better aesthetics, Wren says.
"Considering population growth out there, light
pollution has gone up only a little," said Anita
Cochran, assistant director of the observatory
who has been there 32 years, crediting Wren's
work.
The El
Paso-Juarez area, for example, has increased in
population from 171,266 in 1930, just two years
before the McDonald Observatory started its
work, to about 2.2 million last year. By 2020,
the population is expected to reach 3.7 million.
The
nearby efforts have little pull, however, over
far-flung cities.
In Big
Bend National Park, long-time rangers say that
the night skies have brightened.
"We do
detect lighting domes that originate far, far
beyond Big Bend," Raymond Skiles, wilderness
coordinator at the park, said. He said sky glow
from as far as Monterrey, Midland, Del Rio and
El Paso-Juarez smudge the sky.
"At
this point it's quite modest and not intrusive,
but it's something that we'll have to watch in
future years if those urban areas continue to
grow rapidly."
Twice
over the past five years, scientists have
clambered to the top of the National Park's
highest mountain, Emory Peak, to record the
brightness of the night sky, Skiles said.
Wren
says calculating how much McDonald has
brightened since 1932, when it opened, is
impossible, because one would need to recreate
other conditions, like humidity and dust, to
make sure results were consistent and
scientifically valid.
But
the sky is "noticeably brighter to the eye"
around the observatory than it was decades ago,
Wren said.
"Some
objects that were just at the limit of
detectabilty in the 1930s, that just stood out
from the background, would be invisible today."
Stargazers say disappearing stars are akin to
the extinction of a species, and liken the night
skies to other natural wonders that need to be
preserved. Since thenights Galileo trained his
telescope from the candle-lit spires in
Florence, astronomers have been driven to
increasingly remote refuges to do their work,
from Andean peaks to these West
Texas
mountaintops.
McDonald is far from having the problems of
other observatories near cities. Deepsky
projects, like those once famously conducted by
Edwin Hubble, are hard to come by at the Mount
Wilson Observatory near Los Angeles; the
observatory now is a center of daytime pursuits
like solar research.
Astronomers here, who drive up the mountainside
in the dark with only their parking lights on,
say they are keenly aware of the sky glow. In a
strangely bright, windowless chamber to the side
of the Smith Telescope, encased by a set of
double doors that form a light-blocking system,
astronomer Phillip MacQueen and his assistant
Alexander Fry pore over results spilling from
seven computer monitors. They use a yellow
joystick called a hand paddle to control the
direction of the massive telescope next door.
The
two men, working on the dark energy project, are
effectively looking back in time at the
expansion of the universe. But it takes dark
skies to scrutinize the heavens for dark energy.
"When
the sky gets brighter, it's like noise,"
MacQueen says. "Sky brightness is critical to
us."
Observation time, or the exposure time the
telescope needs to detect and capture distant
light, grows by a square of the amount the sky
brightens, MacQueen says.
"As
the sky gets twice as bright, we have to observe
four times as long," he said. Unlike other types
of pollution problems, like spilled oil, light
pollution has a beguilingly easy solution: If,
in a moment, all the lights switched off,
suddenly the dark skies, and the attendant
stars, would reappear, just as they looked to
the earliest humans.
Musings like this one drive the International
Dark-Sky Association, an Arizona-based group
whose motto is "Carpe Noctem!" Its board
president, Bob Gent, says the group is working
to measure the brightening of dark skies, and
has programs to address light trespass, the
casting of light beyond its target.
At a
recent stargazing party at the observatory, it
seemed hard to believe that brightening skies
were a problem.
"There's the zodiacal cloud," staffer Frank
Cianciolo said, pointing to a broad haze, made
up of dust from the solar system, streaking
through the darkness.
"And
that," he said, drawing the guests' attention to
the bulging glow on the horizon "is El Paso."
*NEW* Camp
Bullis, City Settle Differences on Dark-Sky
Ordinance (KSAT News, San Antonio)
November 19, 2008:
SAN ANTONIO -- One day
after Camp Bullis officials voiced concerns over
an ordinance inside the city preventing
excessive light pollution, the two sides appear
to have seen the light. A pair of dark sky
ordinances have been enacted in Bexar and Comal
counties recently, but a similar ordinance has
been more difficult to achieve in San Antonio,
said Camp Bullis spokesman Phil Reidinger. "The
city has a different set of interests that Comal
and Bexar County do," he said. The various dark
sky ordinances are in response to Camp Bullis
officials concerns about light pollution and its
effect on nighttime training missions at and
around the base. Rod Sanchez with the city's
Planning and Development Services department
said Camp Bullis officials had three concerns
with the city's latest draft, which Reidinger
said base officials had not yet seen when it was
proposed for a December vote by City Council.
The issues included a reduction in the length of
time for light exemptions for existing
businesses, the 3-mile radius around the base
and assurance certain green construction
standards would be followed and the exclusion of
digital billboards within the dark sky zone. "We
need to listen to both sides to see what's the
best fit for this area and if it makes sense,"
Sanchez said. Currently, the city's pilot
program for digital billboards allows for a
maximum of 15 to be erected. The city has
approved 13, while 12 of those are currently in
operation, Sanchez said. Reidinger said Camp
Bullis didn't want any digital billboards in the
area should the city choose to expand its
program. Sanchez said the city is listening to
Camp Bullis' concerns, but is also prepared to
listen to concerns from other impacted parties,
including nearby neighborhood associations.
"We're going to probably get a lot of public
input at that time, but we expect to be able to
explain the ordinance and that they would go
along with it," Sanchez said.
The ordinance is expected to be presented to
the City Council for approval on Dec. 11.
Current
Draft of the San Antonio Lighting Ordinance (PDF):
San
Antonio Ordinance Draft.pdf
September 2008:
Bexar County Measure Protects
Camp Bullis (San Antonio Express News)
County
commissioners
stepped in
Tuesday to
require that new
development in
county territory
within 3 miles
of Camp Bullis
use lighting
that would limit
glare
threatening the
night training
of Army medics.
Before the
commissioners'
5-0 vote, Col.
Wendy Martinson,
Fort Sam
Houston's
garrison
commander, cast
it as a
high-stakes
decision. She
said failure to
pass the measure
for new
commercial and
residential
projects — in
light of the
area's rapid
growth — would
“severely”
impact the
camp's training
mission.
To reduce glare,
so-called “dark
sky” fixtures
use shields to
direct light to
the ground.
To illustrate
the problem of
light pollution,
Commissioner
Lyle Larson
recounted a
recent night
flight he took
over the camp,
wearing
night-vision
goggles.
“It may be just
one residence,
(but) it can be
a blinding
effect,” said
Larson, whose
precinct
encompasses Camp
Bullis.
The county's
order applies
only to
unincorporated
areas within a
3-mile zone
around Camp
Bullis'
perimeter, or
about 26 percent
of the property
in the zone. It
doesn't apply to
existing
lighting
systems, though
county officials
said they were
encouraging
property owners
to voluntarily
comply with the
measure.
They are also
asking
homeowners
within the zone
to turn off
their outside
lights between
11 p.m. and 5
a.m.
In a parallel
effort to
protect the
camp, City
Council members
Diane Cibrian
and Louis Rowe
lined up support
Monday to direct
staffers to look
into crafting a
similar
ordinance.
Within city
limits, Larson
called The Rim —
a retail center
immediately
southwest of
Camp Bullis —
the “800-pound
gorilla” as far
as light
pollution, and
he said county
and city
officials would
ask owner Thomas
Enterprises to
voluntarily turn
off its lights
at 11 p.m. or
adopt “dark sky”
lighting.
Cibrian said The
Rim's developer
included
downward
lighting after
conversations
with officials
at Fort Sam
Houston, which
oversees
training at Camp
Bullis. She said
the owner was
considering a
new plan that
would restrict
lighting
further.
“The Rim is
considered the
model of
cooperation
between Camp
Bullis and the
development
community,”
Cibrian said.
But County Judge
Nelson Wolff
said the “dark
sky” order
addressed “just
part of the
issue.” Perhaps
more
importantly,
officials are
wrestling with
how to prevent
too much
development from
closing in on
Camp Bullis and
potentially
forcing
endangered
species, such as
the
golden-cheeked
warbler, onto
its largely
untamed
property.
Steven Hanan,
president-elect
of the Real
Estate Council
of San Antonio,
said his
organization
supports efforts
to protect Camp
Bullis' mission.
But he objected
to learning
about the
lighting
ordinance only
10 days before
the vote.
The measure also
had flaws, he
said. The
ordinance, he
noted, didn't
allow for the
fact that some
retail centers
keep their
parking lots
brightly lit for
the safety of
customers and
employees.
“These are minor
problems,” Hanan
said. “But if
we'd been
involved six
weeks ago, we
probably
wouldn't have
had these minor
problems.”
Larson
acknowledged
that developers
should have
gotten more of a
heads-up, but he
added: “We need
your help — we
don't want you
to fight us on
it.”
The move came at
the request of
Fort Sam's top
commander. Maj.
Gen. Russell
Czerw asked
commissioners in
an April 8
letter to
regulate outdoor
lighting within
3 miles of Camp
Bullis'
perimeter.
Legislation
signed by Gov.
Rick Perry gave
the county the
power to do that
in 2007.
Michael Moore,
president of the
Greater San
Antonio Builders
Association,
said the expense
of the new
regulation would
hit commercial
developers much
harder than the
home builders
who make up his
organization's
membership.
“There will be
some expense but
I don't think
it'll be a huge
expense,” Moore
said in an
interview. “When
you go to the
commercial guys,
it may actually
eliminate some
of their
projects. If the
retailer that
they're selling
to requires X
amount of
lighting to keep
their store
visible, that
store may not go
in that
location.”
To the
commissioners,
he said: “We
don't have a
problem with the
order. We have a
problem with the
process.”
Comal County
Enacts "dark
sky"
restrictions
(San Antonio
Express News)
Comal County has joined its big neighbor to the south in a move to keep the night sky around Camp Bullis dark.
In July, Bexar County commissioners passed “dark sky” lighting restrictions for developments within 3 miles of the Army training facility. Comal County commissioners enacted a similar rule Thursday.
“We passed what was requested by the Army,” said Comal County Commissioner Jay Millikin. “It only applies to new construction. Everything already built is grandfathered.”
Camp Bullis is in Bexar County, but its northern border abuts the Comal County line. Light pollution from new subdivisions is a growing problem for the camp, as it can interfere with the realism of night training exercises for combat medics.
Development of residential neighborhoods and shopping centers is also pushing endangered golden-cheeked warblers onto the 2,800-acre facility, where the birds' presence could also endanger plans to expand training.
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