CAPE MAY POINT — Borough Commission continues to consider recommendations on light trespass, a form of light pollution in which unwanted artificial light spills onto neighboring properties.
On July 14, Clerk Elaine Wallace asked commissioners for clarity on light trespass regulations, including lighting plans detailed in landscaping when someone was applying for a zoning permit, the location of outdoor lighting fixtures, uplighting, shielding and related regulations.
The commissioners agreed more conversation was needed to clarify what could be included in an update to the zoning code.
In April, Deputy Mayor Elise Geiger said the recommendation started with the Environmental Commission sending research and proposals to the Planning Board.
“One recommendation was to add a lighting plan that is DarkSky-compliant to the landscape plan,” Geiger said, adding that the second recommendation was to have an educational process.
“I agree that we should be more specific in our zoning in the type of lighting we require,” Geiger said. “The other thing brought up at the Planning Board is that in our master plan, there is actually a statement that is pretty explicit that we should not have uplighting, pathway illumination only.”
Geiger added that uplighting is found on the façades of new homes and on little trees.
“That was never envisioned in the master plan, so maybe we should add that, no longer all of this landscaping and structural uplighting and just reduce it to pathway illumination,” Geiger said.
VanHeeswyk said it was important to note that if people already have light fixtures, the board can choose to grandfather them in.
“That’s where I think the education comes in,” Geiger said. “Their recommendation was that the Environmental Commission take that role.”
In regard to zoning, Geiger said they needed to discuss what requirements would be included in the update.
“I’m going to start in the negative, which is not the most pleasant thing to do,” Mayor Anita VanHeeswyk said. “I thought the Environmental Commission came back [not] very positive about doing this. I still think we need something.”
VanHeeswyk added that the Environmental Commission’s initial report was very thorough and that members did a great job. She also said that measuring lumens would be beyond their capability. Geiger said she agreed with VanHeeswyk.
“This is the opportunity now to say how [detailed] we really want to go on the zoning part of [the lighting plan],” Geiger said. “Because we’re not going to run around and have everybody remove all the lights on their houses, so everybody doesn’t get all upset.”
Commissioner Suzanne Yunghans said that the zoning packet includes five lighting principles but they do not have anything specific in the code.
“I would think that we want shielded and downward-directed, particularly if you’re talking about path lighting,” Yunghans said.
She added that a challenge is addressing floodlights that are left on all night, lighting up the entire yard and shining into neighbors’ yards.
“If there’s some way to say we don’t want to have floodlighting all night long, or some kind of motion detection that goes off after x number of minutes, something that would control that,” she added.
Geiger said that in her research, some ordinances require light distribution plans to demonstrate that lighting is not spilling onto neighboring properties. She said she didn’t know if they wanted to go that far.
Yunghans said they are talking about pathway lighting, lighting at an entry point to the house, whether a garage door, front door or back door. Geiger said that was something they could consider for new construction.
Yunghans and VanHeeswyk said they preferred timers to motion sensors.
“I understand the concept of [motion sensors], it’s nice to have the lights go on and off when you come home, but it does it for every raccoon and opossum walking around the yard,” VanHeeswyk said, adding that lighting should be shielded and downward-facing to not disturb birds.
Wallace asked if the commissioners wanted to consider putting in lights off at a certain time. VanHeeswyk said no, because then it becomes code enforcement.
“Let’s educate for a while before we have to get there,” Geiger said. “And as we know, some neighbors are not so neighborly and it’s another item in the neighborhood wars.”
Yunghans said the Environmental Commission has an educational presentation scheduled for 6:30 p.m. July 24, in collaboration with the Cape May Point Arts and Science Center.
By RACHEL SHUBIN/Special to the Star and Wave
