LIGHTING ORDINANCE DEVELOPMENT—
Introduction

For an overview of how lighting ordinances are developed in Maine, the State Planning Office provides information on land use planning including Maine’s Growth Management Act. A good place to start is their brochure, "Why Create a Comprehensive Plan Consistent with Maine's Growth Management Act?" 

Following this brief introduction, there is a more detailed guidebook: "Comprehensive Planning: A Manual for Maine for Maine Communities 2005 Edition."

The ordinances presently on the books in Maine (and across the country) have slowly evolved as they have been handed from town to town. They all addressed the most basic issues and represented major advancements.

Objective #1—Creating common-sense community-based lighting ordinances from the ground up

The Institute's first objective was to create an updated second-generation ordinance based upon a broad coalition of interested stake holders and tailored to Maine's traditional values of personal responsibility. The result is a sound, common-sense document that represents the latest knowledge of the importance of controlling excess lighting. It was critical to create this document from the ground up, in order to meet the unique needs of Maine communities, which pride themselves on local control and citizen participation.

A challenge arose when we faced the issue of professional lighting design requirements. Preventing over-illumination and excessive lighting means requires us to ask how much light is "enough," and controlling lighting levels in rural communities with no enforcement capability is our greatest concern.

As a result, three tiered levels of ordinances were envisioned:

• a simple qualitative model for small rural towns
   
• a basic quantitative model for larger towns with commercial centers
   
• an advanced engineering specification model

The basic version is built upon the simple by adding requirements enforceable by basic measurements with a $500 light meter. The addition of engineering specifications to the basic version will be used to generate the advanced model for towns with professional enforcement capabilities.

Our solution emphasizes voluntary best practices so important to the character of Maine communities; this is an essential component for towns that are striving to manage a valuable natural resource. The simple, basic, and advanced models place equal weight on government and its citizens to achieve the stated goal, especially in rural areas with the most at stake.
 

Objective #2—Developing recommendations based on core minimum requirements and community needs

Our second objective was to develop three core minimum requirements, using language common to neighboring communities of any size:

• Use of full-cutoff shielding
   
• Control of light trespass
   
• Control of excess lighting

A comprehensive list of exemptions and voluntary recommended best practices is included for the consideration of each community, based on the model of three tiered levels:

• Simple—One page of clear, easily-understood language, providing qualitative guidelines that are enforceable by common sense interpretation, requiring no instrumentation or quantitative values.
   
• Basic—A multi-page document, with fully developed definitions and technically precise language, featuring quantitative requirements enforceable through simple light meter readings.
   
• Advanced—A comprehensive technical requirements specification, with quantitative engineering specifications, requiring professional enforcement.