In 1993, the National Trust for Historic Preservation placed the state of Vermont on its endangered historic places list, noting that the state was vulnerable to "conglomerate super store chains" that threatened its historic village areas. Increased development in the past three decades has brought a corresponding increase in the use of outdoor lighting to both urban and rural areas of the state. From the latter, a disturbing trend has ensued: new, less costly exterior lamps--often brighter than their ancestors--are "ratcheting up" light levels. The result is an inefficient use of energy and the loss of two important natural resources: the night landscape and the night sky. 

State law, particularly concerned with the effects of new development on the State's scenic resources, requires municipalities to consider the aesthetics of outdoor lighting when reviewing construction and development proposals. At both the local and state levels, however, officials lack the expertise and resources to evaluate new lighting plans or to create effective regulations. The Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission (CCRPC) tackled this problem with a program to create model lighting regulations for a variety of settings, from small towns to cities; provide educational resources to residents and local developers ; and conduct research on outdoor illumination and mitigation of excessive ambient light levels, or "light pollution." The program currently underway has three objectives:

• Establish clear guidelines for community planners. Clear and consistent criteria will allow planners to assess effectively the impact and suitability of proposed projects.
• Establish clear guidelines for developers. Intelligible standards will ease the regulatory burden on developers, assist them in understanding outdoor-lighting requirements, and expedite the review process for land development.
• Educate communities and government. Information on appropriate outdoor-lighting solutions helps communities build consensus on outdoor-lighting issues, and encourages voluntary action to increase energy efficiency and decrease light pollution. Educational materials will assist town officials in developing appropriate local standards. 

Unenlightened Lighting

When the CCRPC began to grapple with its regions' outdoor-lighting concerns, it quickly discovered that two major problems were keeping local planners and developers in the dark.

One was a lack of design expertise within local governments. Community planning commissions, responsible for guiding and approving all new development found themselves attempting to interpret good lighting design without an appropriate set of tools to do the job. Some towns had included sections on outdoor lighting in their zoning ordinances, but most had little understanding of lighting vocabulary or the basics of lighting design, and were inevitably frustrated in their review of lighting plans.

The other was the absence of common standards for outdoor lighting: standards consistent across communities and regions, and between regions and the state. Because Vermont has no county level government, regional planning and development issues are handled by 12 Regional Planning commissions (RPCs). The RPCs are non-profit public entities created by a Vermont statute to serve the states 256 communities. Because community participation on a commission is voluntary, commissions cannot always capture the breadth of lighting concerns within their jurisdictions, and develop and enforce regulations accordingly. Add to this confusion other discrepancies at the state level. After being approved at the local level, development plans must be scrutinized under Vermont's Act 250, a land-use and development law. Under this act, a proposed development is subject to ten, sometimes conflicting criteria. For example the act requires review of outdoor lighting on the grounds of both energy efficiency and aesthetics. Though not mutually exclusive, pursuit of these goals often involves tradeoffs of one for the other. This, along with a lack of integration of regulations between the state and various communities hampered developers' ability to anticipate and meet regulatory requirements.
 

Broad Cooperation To Preserve Local Character

To help municipalities develop clear standards that both local planners and developers would follow, the CCRPC began a one-year study of outdoor lighting in March 1995. The decision was a pioneering one, CCRPC staff and consultants who researched outdoor-lighting discovered that 90 percent of the research done on lighting in the United States focused on indoor lighting.

To ensure that the study's findings and recommendations would be sensitive to a broad array of interested parties; the CCRPC sought the participation of many stakeholders: the Vermont Public Service Department; the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources; the Act 250 District Environmental Commission; the Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce; the Green Mountain Power Corporation, a private utility; the Burlington Electric Department, a public utility; the Vermont Association of Planning and Development Agencies; the Vermont chapter of the American Institute of Architects; and the Vermont Planners Association. These groups provided constructive comment and administrative, technical, and financial support to the effort.

Local involvement is especially vital to the CCRPC's development of model lighting ordinances and approaches, as well as to conceptualization of the structure and organization of the study's final products: a slide presentation and manual that educate communities about basic lighting concepts and solutions to outdoor-lighting problems. The CCRPC chose three communities within Chittenden County as case-study subjects. Together, the three represent a good cross-section of Vermont's communities: the city of Burlington is the state's largest urban area (pop. 39,127); the town of Richmond is a small rural community (pop. 3,729); and the town of Shelburne is a small suburban community (pop. 5,871). 

Local lighting committees representing a variety of interests were organized in each case-study community to develop community profiles and identify lighting issues and priorities. The Burlington committee identified energy waste from inefficient lighting fixtures as a major concern. The city also has a high number of non-shielded fixtures that shed excessive ambient light, and brighten its night sky. The Shelburne committee pointed to a different set of concerns: the glare of unshielded, misdirected sodium-vapor floodlights mounted on utility poles; glare from interior lighting; illuminated signs; and excessive lighting in parking lots. Richmond's lighting committee made a priority of reducing glare from interior lighting and illuminated signs and keeping the majority of the town dark.

Having noted these concerns, each local committee recommended maximum lighting levels for each application. The communities also suggested establishing lighting districts and creating lighting performance standards including: maximum mounting heights, uniformity ratios, minimum color rendering indexes, and utilizing energy saving devices such as dimmers and sensors in lieu of all-night lighting. 

The process of developing recommendations involved meetings, work sessions, and night-time tours of the community to discuss various lighting installations and designs. The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's Lighting Research Center acted as a consultant, familiarizing local study participants with standards and guidelines developed by the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IESNA) for use as a benchmark. At the project's conclusion, Burlington, Shelburne, and Richmond will have developed model lighting ordinances appropriate to their communities and useful to similar jurisdictions as model standards.

Chittenden County's research program was financed through a $25,000 grant from the Urban Consortium Energy Task Force (UCETF) of Public Technology, Inc. (PTI), through a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) cooperative agreement. Matching funds came from the CCRPC, the Green Mountain Power Company, the Burlington Electric Department, and the Vermont Public Service Department. 

Assessing Performance and Replicating Results

It is too early to assess the CCRPC study's impact on outdoor-lighting use patterns. Local adoption of a model lighting ordinance will require a "break-in" period, delaying the measurement of positive results: energy saved, jobs created, economic development, and protection of scenic resources. Measuring results is also difficult because it involves assessing intangibles: the value Vermont has placed on its landscape and natural resources and lighting's impact on that value.

While direct lighting impacts may be difficult to quantify, the benefits of creating model standards are clear. Chittenden County towns and cities will have a greater understanding of outdoor lighting options and impacts, as well as clear guidelines for the development of locally appropriate ordinances. Other Vermont communities are considering incorporating the CCRPC study results in their own plans and laws--a testament to the value, initial success, and transferability of the project.

For its part, the CCRPC believes that the results of its study are applicable to virtually any community in the nation but especially pertinent to the concerns of rural areas. This study will add to a growing body of literature on outdoor lighting. The educational materials and model standards developed by the study will take the guesswork out of outdoor-lighting for many local governments, helping communities determine the appropriateness of lighting policy under various scenarios, implement the most efficient lighting designs, and preserve their natural environments. 

Location: 
New England, east of Lake Champlain and west of the Green Mountains.

Size:
532 sq. mi.

Population:
136,773.

Per Capita Income:
$20,224

Form of Government:
Regional Planning Commission (RPC). Vermont has no county government system; RPC's address regional planning and development issues. Municipal participation in an RPC is voluntary.

Context:
The communities of Chittenden County are famous for their recreational opportunity and for unspoiled natural beauty. Lake Champlain and the Green Mountains offer year-round recreation. The area's natural attributes have long been a draw for tourists but the region is also attractive to other industries including manufacturing and trade. Chittenden County, like many regions in Vermont, is working hard to preserve its natural character while accommodating growth and economic opportunity. 

More Light on the Subject

The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's Lighting Research Center is also conducting outdoor lighting research. In the Spring of 1996 the center will publish the Outdoor Lighting Pattern Book a guide to outdoor-lighting technologies and potential applications. The handbook will be published in the Spring of 1996.

For further reading on outdoor lighting see "Shedding Light on the Urban Landscape" in the October 1995 issue Zoning News a monthly newsletter of the American Planning Association and "Night Blindness" in the Winter 1996 issue of The Amicus Journal, a publication of the Natural Resources Defense Council. 

Did you know?

In a typical suburban American neighborhood the sky is five to ten times brighter than the natural night sky. In city centers it may be up to fifty times brighter.

On a clear dark night some 2,500 stars should be visible to the naked eye. On the same night in a moderately illuminated suburban area only 300 stars can be seen, and in large cities only a few dozen penetrate the urban glare.

Only 10 percent of Americans can now see the Milky Way above their homes. 

The Benefits

The traditional street light, a 175-watt mercury fixture uses about 200 watts (including ballast losses). These lamps typically burn about 11 hours per night, or about 4,000 hours per year. Switching to more efficient high pressure sodium bulbs could cut energy energy consumption and expenditures in half. Using shielded fixtures to direct light onto the ground could save an another 30 percent. A city with 500,000 residents could easily have 10,000 street lights. Such a city could achieve the following benefits: 

Energy Savings

4 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year

Energy Cost Savings

$325,000 per year
 

Environmental Benefits

The energy saved from the use of more efficient bulbs would provide a significant reduction in air emissions as well

SOX emissions avoided:

23 million lbs. per year

10 million lbs. per year

6 million lbs. per year

It's a Fact

Approximately one-third of night-time illumination in the United States shines into the sky rather than on the ground. The price tag for this wasted light exceeds $1 billion a year. As communities recognize the energy and cost savings potential of eliminating waste light they are taking steps to capture those benefits. The city of San Diego, California now saves $3 million every year from its efforts to reduce light pollution and the State of Connecticut expects to save $10 million annually by regulating light pollution. 
 

Other jurisdictions working to restrict light pollution include:

Boulder, CO
Kansas City, MO
Kennebunkport, ME
Portland, ME
San Diego, CA
Sanibel Island, FL
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Tucson, AZ

Other Sustainable Programs in Chittenden County, Vermont

Sustainable Development:

Chittenden County Regional Plan - Designates growth center within the region's 18 communities. Its principal objective is to "secure the character of the region's natural and built environment" through a bottom-up planning process.

Burlington Sustainable Economy Resolution - Calls for all city departments to follow five sustainable economic policies: maximize conservation efforts; develop and use renewable resources; foster local production; support grassroots decision-making; and encourage low-cost, community self-help strategies.

Burlington Ecological Security - Identifies and promotes sustainable development that meets local needs and limits unavoidable adverse impacts. The Burlington Community & Economic Development Office works with the private sector to increase its awareness of these issues.
 

Energy:

Vermont Guide to Municipal Energy Planning - Encourages communities to adopt locally appropriate energy plans. Provides direction for decisions related to energy use in and by the community.