Dark skies regs kick in next week

The deadline for Whitefish property owners to make their outdoor lighting "dark sky" compliant is only four days away — Aug. 17.

The city enacted its outdoor lighting ordinance on July 17, 2006. The goal is to protect motorists against direct glare, prevent light from trespassing on adjacent properties, improve views of the nighttime sky and conserve energy with more efficient lighting fixtures.

There are two basic ways property owners can meet the new outdoor lighting standards — install new "full-cutoff" light fixtures or change the bulbs to meet wattage and lumens levels provided in a chart in the "dark skies' ordinance.

Full-cutoff fixtures block all light except that which shines downward where it's needed. Changing out fixtures can be expensive, as property owners not only have to find and purchase replacement fixtures, they may also need to hire an electrician to install them. Changing bulbs could be an easier alternative.

Whitefish city manager Chuck Stearns said the city hasn't received much feedback from the public about the ordinance, but that could change once the city's code-enforcement officer starts checking homes and businesses for compliance. Enforcement will be complaint-driven, Stearns said — there won't be any "light police."

The city has been retrofitting its hundreds of Gay-90s style street lamps to make them compliant with the ordinance. A mogul adapter is being used to shift the bulb higher inside the globe. It doesn't make the fixture full-cutoff compliant, Stearns said, but the compromise 'satisfied the council when the ordinance was adopted."

For more information, contact the city's planning and building department at 863-2410.regs