Albemarle and Charlottesville commemorate Dark Sky Week

For millennia, humanity has looked to the skies for inspiration and education and for most of that time almost anyone on the planet could look up and be treated to an infinite canvas of starlight.

In the last couple of centuries, lighting in urban areas has drowned out the night sky and once a year the International Dark-Sky Association spends a week trying to draw attention to the importance of darkness.

Both the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors and the Charlottesville City Council have adopted resolutions marking April 13 through April 20 as International Dark Sky Week.

“Many people in Albemarle County live under a dome of light pollution—excessive artificial lighting at night that disrupts natural darkness—and may never experience the visual wonder or ecological and health benefits of living under a dark sky,” said Albemarle Supervisor Ann Mallek, reading from a proclamation.

The resolution in Charlottesville notes that the City Council has recently joined an organization that supports efforts to reduce light pollution.

“The City of Charlottesville is now part of the Biophilic Cities Network and is committed to providing opportunities for community members to connect with the natural world,” said City Councilor Lloyd Snook.

That natural world is why Dark Sky Week is celebrated around this time of year. Both Albemarle and Charlottesville are within close proximity to both Shenandoah National Park and James River State Park.

“Peak spring bird migration falls during Dark Sky Week and 80 percent of migrating birds fly at night and need starlight to navigate,” Snook said.

Mallek said that Albemarle is also home to the Fan Mountain observatory and the county’s Biodiversity Action Plan has strategies and goals to avoid light pollution.

The county’s new Comprehensive Plan has several calls to action such as Objective 4.7 of the Environmental Stewardship which reads:

“Revise the County’s lighting ordinance requirements to minimize the impacts of lighting on the health of animals, plants, and humans; to provide safe lighting for multimodal transportation options; and to protect and enhance dark skies using best practices such as recommendations from Dark Sky International, the Illuminating Engineering Society, and the DesignLights Consortium LUNA Program. Collaborate with the City of Charlottesville, the University of Virginia, and local authorities where possible to limit the effects of lighting spillover.”

Christine Putnam, a member of the county’s Natural Heritage Committee, called on the county to move swiftly to adopt that revised ordinance.

“In fact, Dark Sky International has recently released their updated model ordinance which uses best practices to ensure public safety while also reducing waste, wasteful lighting, because most of our spaces are overlit with lighting with light that actually never reaches its intended target,” Putnam said.

Putnam also called for increased enforcement of the existing ordinance as well as education for business owners whose current lighting is not compliant.

Supervisor Fred Missel, who is also design and development director for the University of Virginia Foundation, agreed that education is key.

“You know, having been in the development world for decades, the full cutoff light fixtures have been part of our narrative,” Missel said. “And it’s something that we’ve always included in our developments, and it’s absolutely essential. I would challenge us to think about what’s next.”

In Charlottesville, Emily Lien with the group Piedmont Dark Skies also asked for greater enforcement of the existing ordinance.

“The city’s current ordinance requires that commercial lighting be fully shielded so that the light shines on the ground directly underneath and not into the sky or horizontally, which contributes to sky glow and causes blinding glare for people,” Lien said. “Unfortunately, many businesses add or or replace lighting that doesn’t comply with the current ordinance. This goes unaddressed unless someone makes a complaint.”

For more information about the topic, visit Dark Virginia Sky.

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