Public Surveys on Dark Night Sky Lighting

In the summer of 2021, the Louisville City Council began to discuss a dark night sky lighting ordinance. Such ordinances regulate outdoor lighting as a means to mitigate light pollution at night. In a future blog post I will elaborate on the detriments of light pollution and the benefits of dark night sky lighting. Such ordinances typically mitigate light pollution by regulating the following characteristics of outdoor lighting: the structure of light fixtures, the brightness of emitted light, the color of emitted light, the regions illuminated by emitted light, and the timing of illumination. Following the Marshall fire, City Council put consideration of such an ordinance on hold. This year City Council will once again deliberate on a dark night sky lighting ordinance, specifically for single-family residential properties. Dark night sky lighting for multifamily residential and commercial properties will most likely await revision of the City’s Commercial Development Design Standards and Guidelines, which govern outdoor lighting at these properties.

The City is currently soliciting input on such an ordinance through surveys for both Louisville residents and Louisville business owners. I encourage everyone to complete the relevant surveys before the end of the day on 15 April. I took the residents’ survey today; I found this survey rather short and quite painless. You can access the surveys through the Louisville 2023 Outdoor Lighting Ordinance webpage on Engage Louisville. This website also hosts information about the City’s timeline for consideration of the ordinance, including an open house in March, and information about dark night sky lighting.