A newly proposed outdoor lighting ordinance for Page that seeks to make the city more dark sky friendly has some local business owners on edge.
As part of an ongoing wholesale revamp of the city’s ordinance and zoning laws, the changes to outdoor lighting will go to city council tonight for their first official reading. The Page Planning and Zoning board and Page Community Development Director Kimberly Johnson have been the primary architects of the new ordinance, but council will have the final say in its implementation. A second reading, which is likely to occur at the next city council meeting, would segue into the ordinances becoming law should council approve.
Dark sky policy is often a contentious subject within the communities that choose to adopt it. According to many dark sky advocates, benefits of a true dark sky municipality include increased tourism, marked health benefits for residents and energy conservation and financial savings. However, dark sky opponents often cite concerns with safety, crime and a general feeling of ease when streets are well lit. Others are skeptical of laws that inherently dictate lighting on privately owned businesses and residences — especially those that don’t grandfather in lighting on longstanding businesses.
City staff and the P&Z board have been pursuing more dark sky-friendly lighting laws for roughly two years. While the old code has language that could be considered dark sky-friendly, it is largely unspecific and based on old technology and scientific understanding. The International Dark Sky Association has provided input on the new language within the proposed ordinances for Page; pulling from laws that govern other certified dark sky cities such as Flagstaff and Sedona.
Some of the most notable changes within the ordinance include:
• A lighting curfew will be imposed on all non-residential lighting except street lights and a few other exceptions. A provision within the ordinance requires that all such commercial lighting be extinguished by 10 p.m., or within one hour of the closing of the venue — whichever comes later.
• All outdoor light fixtures, residential and commercial, must not exceed a color temperature of 3000 kelvin (This restriction will apply to all public city lighting, including street lights as well).
• All lighting fixtures must comply with a set of guidelines outlined within the ordinance. Primarily, this governs all outdoor lighting must be directed downwards and must be shielded at the top to prevent upwards glare. Upward facing light fixtures, spotlights and “wallpack” lighting (light fixtures attached flush to the side of a building which throw lighting across a wide area) are banned entirely.
• All Page residents and business owners affected by the new ordinances will have seven years to come into compliance with them. The city outlines suggestions of replacing bulbs as they burn out with bulbs that meet the requirements, as well as changing fixtures that don’t meet the guidelines.
A change that would have restricted the use of holiday lighting during certain hours has since been struck from the proposal after eliciting a negative response from both city council and planning and zoning board members.
Some Page business owners and landlords have spoken out against the changes, saying  they will have to purchase new lighting fixtures out of their own pocket should the new ordinances pass into law — a cost which could prove excessive for many.
Some have stated they feel it is unjust that their lighting was completely within legality when they first set up shop or earned a building permit, but would no longer be within compliance.
Others are concerned with the security of their businesses should they be forced to extinguish their storefront lighting under the new 10 o’clock curfew.

One such citizen, Tina Holman, a Page business owner and former city councilwoman, spoke to all of these points at a public Planning and Zoning meeting earlier in July.
“The entire ordinance looks like a cut and paste of the dark sky guidelines. It does not consider the way people actually work and live in this community. If your goal is to try to push the community in to the dark sky philosophy, this is a pretty underhanded way of trying to accomplish it,” she said. “For a change of this magnitude, it is essential to get community support for such a drastic revision to our existing code.”
Holman criticized the city for not providing enough opportunity for public input on the changes, as well not making it as visible as possible. She went on to describe how small businesses would be stung the most by the ordinances.
“Have you given any consideration to the costs for people and businesses to have to change their existing lighting to meet the rigid requirements of this proposed ordinance?” she asked. “This proposed ordinance has [also] eliminated one of the most important aspects of lighting — security. Businesses would be required to extinguish night lighting at 10 p.m., or within an hour of closing. The lack of adequate night lighting will no doubt lead to an increase in accidents, vandalism and crime.”

Dark skies and Page
City government will be put to the same standards as Page citizens and business owners under the new ordinance. All public lighting which includes street lights, public parking lights and city-owned buildings will need to become compliant within the same seven year timeframe. The city will also be required to turn off the outdoor lighting on all public buildings.
For more than a decade the city has slowly been replacing the bulbs of Page’s 817 streetlights — only a few dozen since they began. The original streetlights are outfitted with high and low-pressure sodium bulbs. Sodium lighting uses its namesake element alongside mercury vapor in an excited state to create its signature dim and yellowish hue.
As technology has improved, low kelvin light emitting diode lamps have been replacing sodium bulbs across the country for more than a decade. PUE General Manager Bryan Hill told the Chronicle back in November 2015 that replacing Page’s sodium street lights was not only a natural progression, but financially savvy.
“Replacing these lights is just the way to go,” he stated. “They require significantly less maintenance, they take less energy, they’re environmentally benign and the lifecycle cost is just way less.”
The current sodium streetlights have three parts that need consistent upkeep — a photovoltaic cell on top that serves as an “alarm clock,” a ballast which increases voltage delivery to excite the sodium and the bulb itself. The bulbs often go out every one to five years, requiring constant maintenance and replacement.
With LEDs, the only component that would need replacing is the photovoltaic cell on top. Otherwise, the lights are rated for a lifespan of up to two decades.
The city has been replacing several streetlights with 4100K LED lights, but will opt instead for lower kelvin lights to meet the new codes should they pass. They will also need to hasten the replacement process to meet the seven-year deadline.
Many dark sky communities across the country have decreased the maximum temperature of bulbs as recent scientific evidence has shown that LED streetlights cause more light pollution than once thought.
The East Hampton Star newspaper reported in December 2015 that Hampton City Council unanimously elected to not only reduce the city’s number of LED bulbs, but also to further limit the temperature of the bulbs from 3,500K to 3,000K.
The article cites testimony from astronomy and health experts saying LED lighting more than 3,000K was overkill, and that many other cities from New York state and Connecticut have made similar legislation.
Johnson spoke with the Chronicle on Tuesday morning to outline the stances of the community development department and planning and zoning board on the contentious issue.
The original impetus for changes to the lighting code, she said, actually came from business owners who wanted to install modern LED lights on their storefronts. The old code had previously stated all outdoor lighting must be sodium-based. The P&Z board and Page City Council fast tracked a rewrite in the code to strike it from the books in early 2016. From there, the Planning and Zoning board was in favor of exploring ways to make the city even more dark sky friendly.
Johnson said the new ordinance would not make Page a certified dark sky compliant city under The International Dark Sky Association, but it would embody “some of the better practices from a dark sky perspective.”
“The goal of city council has been to increase dark sky provisions, but with a goal of going about it in a balanced and reasonable way. I think this ordinance provides that,” she claimed.
Johnson continued by saying that the seven-year grace period is standard among most municipalities that decide to completely revamp codes and ordinances, and said she felt it provided ample time for businesses to meet the new standards. Code violators would not be pursued at all during those seven years, she added.
Speaking to the lighting curfew, Johnson noted that consultants from the Dark Sky Association said that there was no strong evidence one way or the other that a lack of lighting increased or decreased crime at business locations. A lack of lighting from business districts in other cities is shown to drastically reduce skyglow, she said.
The Page Police Department, Johnson noted, also reported to city staff they were supportive of the ordinance and did not bring any points of concern to her or City Manager Crystal Dyches.
Note that the newly proposed lighting ordinances outlined above are subject to change.
If you have any concerns about the new ordinances, a public hearing to voice them in front of city council will be open to tonight during the regularly scheduled city council meeting, which begins at 6:30 p.m.