In 2004, Camp Verde passed an ordinance requiring outdoor lighting to abide by local regulations in order to preserve the area’s dark skies. The dark sky ordinances require outdoor lighting to be well-shielded, usually pointed down, with low lumen levels and warm color temperature, in order to minimize light pollution. Motion sensors are recommended when possible to allow lights to turn off automatically when not necessary.
The 2004 ordinance contained a grandfather clause, allowing those who had set up outdoor lighting before the ordinance had gone into effect to keep their lighting the way it was. For the past decade and a half, the rules have only applied to new lighting setups.
However, that allowance expires automatically in 2024, so the town is beginning an informational campaign to let residents and businesses know about the coming deadline to fix outdated lighting setups, since after the 2024 sunset clause, lighting that does not meet the requirements will be treated as a code violation and adherence will be enforced by the town’s Community Development department.
“Even though it’s three years down the line, three years is going to happen very quickly, and we want to do everything we can to educate people on what they need to do to become compliant with our existing dark sky ordinance,” Camp Verde Community Development Director Melinda Lee told the Town Council at a meeting on Wednesday, March 3.
“We do not treat them as code violations right now,” Lee said. “It’s more of an educational program.”
The plans for communications about changing requirements will include presence of town staff at local events with booths informing residents of what is needed from them, according to Lee. Lee said that the Community Development office does not know yet how much lighting in the town is noncompliant at this point and sees the effort of finding out as part of their future goals.
“We are going to start an inventory of what is out there at night,” Lee said. “We’re going to start doing actual night shifts so that we can see what is still out there and what needs to be addressed. We will be contacting people and letting them know they need to make some changes.”
In 2018 Camp Verde was recognized as an International Dark Sky Community by the International Dark-Sky Association. Northern Arizona represents one of the largest concentrations of dark sky communities in the world, with Sedona, the Village of Oak Creek, Cottonwood, and Flagstaff all being similarly designated, benefiting astronomers, tourists and Flagstaff’s Lowell Observatory.
