Area governments discuss dark skies and lighting ordinances

Two western Travis County cities, Bee Cave and West Lake Hills, are coming to terms with their recent growth, weighing their need for creature comforts—well-lit shopping centers and athletic fields—with maintaining a country feel and the visibility of a night sky filled with stars.

Bee Cave aims to keep dark skies

Veronica Putney said she remembers the early days of her Bee Cave neighborhood—Friday night cabrito roasts at The Branding Iron, weekend rodeos and fall hayrides. Thirty years ago, The Homestead neighborhood welcomed city-goers wanting a break from the noise and lights of Austin, she said.

"There were no homeowners associations, no golf courses," Putney said. "People would come out here to watch the stars."

The Homestead's first speculative development house went up in what was Bee Cave's extraterritorial jurisdiction in 1980, she said. Since then, Bee Cave has experienced a great deal of growth, including a 719 percent increase in population from 2000 to February 2013, Councilwoman Zelda Auslander said at the July Lake Travis Chamber of Commerce economic forecast luncheon. With the influx of people came roads, buildings, homes and, inevitably, lights.

Bee Cave's regulations establish the city's interest in retaining its dark skies.

"The dark skies ordinance is the [city's] lighting ordinance," Bee Cave City Manager Frank Salvato said. "I know the citizens want to see stars at night and not have the glare of a city."

To preserve the nighttime darkness and visibility of the sky, Bee Cave does not have streetlights at intersections within its subdivisions, according to the city's lighting ordinance. Translucent signs are prohibited, and shielded outdoor lights without exposed bulbs are required by code. The city's lighting ordinance also sets out specific guidelines as to how much lighting is permissible in various settings—from an outdoor event to a gas station pump island.

Salvato said the Hill Country Galleria, located within Bee Cave's city limits, complies with the city's lighting ordinance, but the city does not control lighting in the extraterritorial jurisdiction. He said that some of the developments, including Sweetwater, have adopted dark skies initiatives on their own, and others, such as Masonwood, agreed to a dark skies community in its development agreement.

West Lake Hills reassesses lighting ordinance

On April 24, West Lake Hills City Council passed a temporary moratorium on granting exterior lighting permits and extended the moratorium July 10 for an additional 60 days. The moratorium was enacted to allow the city to assess the effect of lighting and dark skies under its comprehensive plan as well as consult with experts, update the plan's terminology and get public feedback on the issue.

Mayor Dave Claunch said a subcommittee comprised of council members Linda Anthony, Taylor Holcomb and David Moore is currently drafting the city's new lighting ordinance.

"I believe the vast majority of our residents support West Lake Hills being a dark skies community," Claunch said. "But many people may not realize how extensive that can be when you think of porch lights, security and walkways being complicated factors. One person's security lighting is another person's nuisance."

Before becoming a council member, Anthony said she spent time on the city's zoning and planning commission and heard neighbors speaking in favor of a dark skies community, noting that many residents erroneously thought West Lake Hills was a dark skies community because it lacks streetlights.

Anthony said creating a new city lighting ordinance is challenging and commends her fellow committee members for their diligence, especially Moore's long hours researching various lighting ordinances throughout the nation. Anthony said she is advocating for residents to be required to file a site plan for new construction of lighting, indicating what lighting they are putting in and where on the lot it will be situated—a step already required when adding swimming pools, fences or other construction.

"Lighting has the potential to be more invasive than [fences or pools]," Anthony said. "Until a light switch is flipped, someone doesn't know if it's going to be light trespass. This will catch a lot of [the invasiveness] at the front end."

Currently residents must file a permit for exterior lighting, and much is left to the discretion of the city administrator or city inspector as to compliance, Anthony said.

"Some people feel that West Lake Hills is over regulated as it is and that we don't need to be adding more regulations," Anthony said. "I see this [site plan lighting requirement] as enhancing what's on the books, what's fair."

Community feedback

Anthony said the subcommittee has been flooded with emails about the lighting ordinance, with some messages coming from people living outside West Lake Hills' borders.

In its first six days, Luke Metzger's MoveOn.Org petition, "West Lake Hills city council: Save our dark, starry nights," received 86 signatures, said Metzger, who is not a resident of the city.

"It's a big issue—protecting the night skies for the public to enjoy," Metzger said.

Metzger, who is also the director of clean air, water and open spaces advocacy group Environment Texas, said he created the petition July 9 to demonstrate public support for the dark skies initiative in West Lake Hills.

"The moratorium was an important step in developing a new ordinance," Metzger said. "West Lake Hills needs to figure out a balance between [issuing] new permits and protecting the night sky. As they develop a permit ordinance, they'll need to address existing lighting. I don't think this can happen overnight."

West Lake Hills' push to become a dark skies community has been in the works for quite some time. On Feb. 22, 2012, the developers of assisted-living center Belmont Village, located on Bee Caves Road, agreed to use lighting levels that comply with dark sky community standards. A new development off Redbud Trail at Stonehedge was established as a dark skies community, Anthony said. In April, Claunch conditioned the final plat and rezoning of a Bee Caves Road project on compliance with dark skies standards.