Hoping to turn down the lights at night to protect wildlife and reduce glare from neighboring properties, Palo Alto officials are set to adopt a “dark sky” ordinance with a broader reach and more stringent requirements than the law they were mulling earlier this year.
In doing so, however, they are confronting two key challenges. Criticisms from residents who claim that turning down the lights will make their homes less secure at night and an acknowledgement from City Hall staff that the new law would be difficult, if not impossible, to enforce.
The new dark-sky ordinance, which the City Council plans to consider on Nov. 10, would create a midnight curfew for most types of outdoor light and create a more stringent standard for light trespass between adjacent properties. Currently, the threshold for light trespass is 0.5 foot-candle, with one foot candle connoting enough light to illuminate a square foot of space with a lumen of light. Palo Alto’s new standard for light trespass would become 0.1 foot-candle…