Council should back P & Z lighting decision
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Joe
Olles of Green Valley wrote a letter to the editor (published Aug. 18) congratulating
the town of Sahuarita's Planning and Zoning Commission for turning down the
developers of a planned Wal-Mart Supercenter's request to use twice as much
lighting as allowed by town code.
In case you missed Mr. Olles' letter, here's a sampling: "One P&Z
member suggested that some compromise is inevitable.
"Suppose
you didn't want to pay all of your income taxes due per the tax code. Would the
IRS say some compromise is inevitable?"
"Compromise suggests the town has an obligation to the developers.
Instead, Sahuarita's obligation is to the taxpayers to help protect their
multi-million dollar investment in the Whipple Observatory."
When the Sahuarita Town Council takes up the developers appeal to overturn the
P&Z Commission's decision Monday night, we hope members will keep Mr.
Olles' admonitions in mind.
And though the town may be vulnerable because it mistakenly approved a lighting
level beyond that allowed by town code for the new Safeway, it can certainly
ask Safeway and the other enterprises grandfathered in because they were built
before the town code was adopted to reduce their lighting levels and comply
with the town lighting codes, which is based on the Pima County code.
Diamond Ventures and Wal-Mart will plead their case Monday for getting the town
to use 110,000 lumens per acre to light their shopping center, more than twice
the amount of 48,000 lumens per acre specified in the town code. A lumen is a
measure of light emitted from a fixture.
Noted
for astronomy
The developers are making their appeal on the basis of
safety, but neighbors and officials of the Whipple Observatory contend they
want to retain the area's dark skies, a big part of what makes
Responding more directly to the developers' request, Hy Kaplan, the head of a
task force on lighting that includes other towns and commercial interests, said
his opinion is that the developers can safely light the parking lot at 48,000
lumens per acre.
Furthermore, the city of
"Plenty
of light"
"To my knowledge we have had no safety issues,"
In another response to the developers' safety argument, Dan Brocious of Whipple
Observatory notes that a comprehensive review of existing studies by the U.S.
Department of Justice found no support for the theory that more light
necessarily means safety. He noted that many crimes occur in the daylight.
The question for the council is how bright do we need it to be? Bright enough to see someone lurking in the dark, for sure, but not
necessarily bright enough to read the paper in the parking lot at night.
We believe the higher lighting level; is being requested for advertising
purposes, to attract traffic from Interstate 19.
We can understand why the developers want this, but don't think it will be
needed. Area residents will flock to a new
We urge the Sahuarita Town Council to uphold the decision of its own Planning
and Zoning Commission and to reject the developers' request to exceed the
lighting code.
©2004 Green Valley News & Sun