Rehoboth Beach is considering new regulations to control “nuisance lighting” in the community.
Nuisance lighting is one issue the Rehoboth Beach Environmental Advisory Committee planned on addressing when created late last year.
A proposed ordinance would make several changes to reduce light pollution, the first being the temperature, or Kelvin, lights are
Committee member Frances Kelleher says that US Fish and Wildlife’s limit is far above what they’ve chosen, but the change is less about brightness and more about the color of the light.
“Dark Skies will certify if you have a maximum set at 3000K. However, it’s not until you get down to around 2400K where you start eliminating a lot of the blue light and you’re moving towards a warmer, golden light.” she said.
Kelleher says the committee decided that warmer hue is a better match for the vast majority of Rehoboth’s street lights, which run on sodium vapor.
She adds the ordinance would also extend to the lighting of homes. Similar to noise complaints, someone could call in a “light complaint” to the City.
Kelleher says the exact emission limits faced some compromise.
“You could end up with, I guess you could say is, too many people being over. So, our subgroup has agreed that [we should] set it at one lux.” she said.
Under the ordinance, a home would be in violation if it is over 1 lux- equal to one lumen spread over one square foot of space. For reference, a full moon is 0.3 lux in brightness.
Kelleher adds that, as proposed, lights would shut off after midnight. However, following concerns about safety, lights will remain on all night.
Determinations on how to enforce the new rules will be discussed next.
