ORD-2003-004 Amend Article 6 to establish Outdoor Lighting Standard

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the water to the air. Fortunately it is much simpler to solve this problem than it is a lot of types of pollution, because every major light fixture company in the country has fixtures that conform to a large number of these Ordinances. "And so it is not even a problem of shopping or finding the right thing. Every one of them makes conforming and non - conforming fixtures and it is just a simple matter for the architects to specify conforming fixtures and it saves the tenants a lot of money. So there are very few people who find a problem with it and the power companies are typically the only people who find a problem with it and even those people are trying hard to be responsible about energy savings and it is a very tough argument for them. "You know in a lot of jurisdictions they make a quick retrofit and that is a big problem. Here, the Ordinance is not proposing a retrofit until the particular fixture needs to be replaced. So it is all just going forward and that is why it is so important with the development that is going on in the county. "So I felt like I needed to come forward and encourage all the people involved with this. And I have to say the staff of Orange County has done a remarkable job of research and looking at Ordinances in other parts of the country and looking at the engineering aspects of it and looking at the basic common sense application of it without going either overboard or not having an effective Ordinance and I hope that in some form similar to the draft it will get eventually accepted. Thank you." Ron Osborne: "Thank you. My name is Ron Osborne, and I am here tonight representing Duke Power regarding the Ordinance. My position with Duke Power is that I am the Engineering Supervisor for the Durham, Burlington, Chapel Hill service areas that encompasses all of Orange County, most of Durham County, Alamance County, and parts of Guilford, counties to the north and south and everything. I wanted to lead off by saying that I am heartened by the actions the County is taking with regard to light pollution and light trespass and I think that this is something that needs to be addressed probably in most jurisdictions. I applaud Orange County for taking a look at it. "Duke's interest in this is to make sure that the Ordinance is simple to follow which will equate to compliance, which will equate to effectiveness. And to that end, and to the intent of trying to limit light trespass, the remarks that we have provided are geared toward that. Let me just say a couple of things because I appreciated the preceding speakers. "The first thing is that part of my business is to look at lights all the time whenever I'm riding down the road so I know how everybody feels when you start thinking about things and you start looking up. And I do see lights all the time that are creating problems. And it is relatively simple to fix them. And I think that the Ordinance can address that. "The other thing that I want to mention is because I found some common ground. I live in rural Alamance County, not far from what is called "Three College Observatory." I've been up there a couple of times with my children to observe the heavens, and the light pollution is a problem. It is getting worse, especially on a foggy night. The moisture in the air does cause a problem. And if you go out and look, you'll probably notice that some of the greatest offenders, unfortunately, are governmental agencies. You look at the highway lighting down 1 -85 and you look at the lighting over different municipalities. And it is going to be a tough issue to tackle unless municipalities and governmental lighting is included. And, again, I applaud Orange County because, based on my interpretation of the Ordinance, that has not been ignored. So, I think that is a good step.