(PROPOSED)

FOSTER TOWNSHIP

OUTDOOR LIGHTING ORDINANCE

A. Purpose

1. To require and set minimum standards for outdoor lighting to:

a. Provide lighting in outdoor public places where public health, safety and welfare are concerns.

b. Protect drivers and pedestrians from the glare of non-vehicular light sources that shine into their eyes and thereby impair safe traverse.

c. Protect neighbors and the night sky from nuisance glare and stray light from poorly shielded, aimed, placed, applied or maintained light sources.

d. Promote efficient design and operation with regard to energy conservation.

e. Protect and retain the established character of the Township.

B. Applicability

1. Outdoor lighting shall be required for safety and personal security for uses that operate during hours of darkness where there is public assembly and traverse, including but not limited to the following uses: multi-family residential, commercial, industrial, public-recreational and institutional.

2. Appropriate officers or agents of the Township may require lighting be incorporated for other uses or locations, as they deem necessary.

3. The glare-control requirements herein contained apply to lighting in all above-mentioned uses as well as, but not limited to, sign, architectural, landscape, recreational and residential lighting.

4. This ordinance does not apply to temporary decorative lighting.

C. Definitions

1. Footcandle – A unit of illuminance stated in lumens per square foot and measurable with an illuminance meter, a.k.a. footcandle or light meter.

2. Full Cutoff - A term used by the lighting industry to describe a lighting fixture from which no light output is emitted at or above a horizontal plane drawn through the bottom of the fixture and no more than 10% of the lamp's light intensity is emitted at an angle 10 degrees below that horizontal plane, at all lateral angles around the fixture. Implicit in the definition is a fixture that is aimed straight down and has a flat lens.

3. Glare – The sensation produced by lighting that causes an annoyance, discomfort or loss in visual performance and visibility to the eye. Glare is subjective and cannot be measured with a meter.

4. Illuminance – The intensity of incident light at a point, measured with a light meter in footcandles or lux.

5. Light Trespass – Light emitted by a lighting installation, which extends beyond the boundaries of the property on which the installation is sited.

6. Luminance – The physical and measurable quantity corresponding to the brightness of a source or surface, e.g., a lamp, luminaire, reflecting material, in a specific direction and measurable with a luminance meter.

7. Lux – A unit of illuminance stated in lumens per square meter. There are approximately 10.7 lux per footcandle.

D. Criteria

1. Illumination Levels

a. Lighting, where required or permitted by this Ordinance, shall have intensities and uniformity ratios in accordance with the current recommended practices of the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IESNA) as contained in the IESNA Lighting Handbook or separately in IESNA Recommended Practices.

b. Future amendments to said recommended practices shall become a part of this Ordinance without further action of the Township.

c. Examples of intensities for typical outdoor applications, as extracted from the Lighting Handbook, are presented below.

Use/Task	Maintained Footcandles	Uniformity Ratio
(a) Streets, local commercial Streets, residential	0.9 Avg. 0.4 Avg.	6:1 Avg:Min 6:1 Avg:Min
(b) Parking, multi-family residential, • Low vehicular/pedestrian activity • Medium vehicular/pedestrian activity	0.2 Min. 0.6 Min.	4:1 Avg:Min 4:1 Avg:Min
(c) Parking, industrial/commercial/institutional/municipal • High activity, e.g., regional shopping centers/fast food facilities, major athletic/civic/cultural events. • Medium activity, e.g. community shopping centers, office parks, hospitals, commuter lots, cultural/civic/ recreational events • Low activity, e.g., neighborhood shopping, industrial employee parking, schools, church parking.	0.9 Min. 0.6 Min. 0.2 Min.	4:1 Avg:Min 4:1 Avg:Min 4:1 Avg:Min
(d) Sidewalks • Commercial • Residential	1.0 Avg. 0.5 Avg.	5:1 Avg:Min 5:1 Avg:Min
(e) Building entrances, commercial, industrial, institutional	5.0 Avg.	-
(f) Service Station Pump Islands	20.0 Avg.	4:1 Avg:Min
(g) Car Dealerships	20.0 Max.	5:1 Max :Min

Notes: 1. Illumination levels are maintained horizontal footcandles on the task, e.g., pavement or area surface.

2. Uniformity ratios dictate that average illuminance values shall not exceed minimum values by more than the product of the minimum value and the specified ratio. E.g., for high activity commercial parking, the average illuminance shall not exceed 3.6 footcandles (0.9 x 4).

2. Lighting Fixture Design

a. Fixtures shall be of a type and design appropriate to the lighting application and aesthetically acceptable to the Township.

b. For lighting horizontal tasks such as roadways, sidewalks, paths, entrances and parking areas, fixtures shall be aimed straight down, shall have flat lenses and shall meet IESNA full-cutoff criteria.

c. The use of floodlighting, spotlighting, wall-mounted fixtures, internally illuminated decorative globes and spheres and other fixtures not meeting IESNA full-cutoff criteria, shall be permitted only with the approval of the Township, based upon acceptable justification and achievement of adequate glare control.

d. When requested by the Township, fixtures shall be equipped with light directing and/or shielding devices such as shields, visors, skirts or hoods to redirect offending light distribution and/or to reduce direct or reflected glare.

e. For all applications, fixtures with an aggregate per fixture output in excess of 1000 lumens shall meet IESNA full-cutoff criteria.

f. NEMA-head fixtures, a.k.a. “barn lights” or “dusk-to-dawn lights,” shall not be permitted where they are visible from other uses, unless fitted with a reflector or shield to render them full cutoff.

3. Control of Nuisance and Disabling Glare

a. All outdoor lighting, whether or not required by this ordinance, on private, residential, commercial, industrial, municipal, recreational or institutional property; shall be aimed, located, designed, fitted and maintained so as not to present a hazard to drivers or pedestrians by impairing their ability to safely traverse and so as not to create a nuisance by projecting or reflecting objectionable light onto a neighboring use or property. All outdoor light fixtures shall be shielded in such a manner that the edge of the shield shall be level with or below the light source, so that direct light emitted above the horizontal is eliminated.

b. All outdoor lighting fixtures that light the area under outdoor canopies shall be shielded in such a manner that no light is emitted above a horizontal plane passing through the lowest point of the light-emitting element, so that direct light emitted above the horizontal plane is eliminated. Outdoor canopies include, but are not limited to, the following applications:

1. Fuel island canopies associated with service stations and convenience stores.

2. Exterior canopies above storefronts in shopping centers and malls.

3. Exterior canopies above driveways and building entrances.

4. Pavilions and gazebos.

c. Floodlights and spotlights, when specifically approved by the Township for use, shall be so installed or aimed that they do not project their output into the windows of neighboring residences, adjacent uses, skyward or onto a public roadway or pedestrian way.

d. Unless otherwise permitted by the appropriate officers or agents of the Township, e.g., for safety or security or businesses that operate all night, lighting for commercial, industrial, public recreational and institutional applications shall be controlled by automatic switching devices such as time clocks or combination motion detectors and photocells, to permit extinguishing outdoor lighting fixtures between 11 p.m. and dawn, to reduce energy waste and mitigate nuisance glare and sky-lighting consequences.

e. Lighting proposed for use after 11 p.m., or after normal hours of operation of a business, which ever is earlier, for commercial, industrial, institutional or municipal applications, shall be reduced by at least 50% from then until dawn, unless supporting a specific purpose and approved by the appropriate officers or agents of the Township.

f. All illumination for advertising signs, buildings and/or surrounding landscapes for decorative, advertising or esthetic purposes is prohibited between 11:00 p.m. and sunrise, except that such lighting situated on the premises of a commercial establishment may remain illuminated while the establishment is actually open for business, and until one hour after closing.

g. Illumination for flagpole lighting shall not exceed 10,000 lumens.

h. Vegetation screens shall not be employed to serve as the primary means for controlling glare. Rather, glare control shall be achieved primarily through the use of such means as cutoff fixtures, shields and baffles, and appropriate application of fixture mounting height, wattage, aiming angle and fixture placement.

i. In no case shall the illumination cast by a source or sources onto an adjacent residential property exceed 0.1 vertical footcandle measured line-of-site, from any point on the adjacent residential property.

j. Externally illuminated signs and billboards shall be lighted by fixtures mounted at the top of the sign and aimed downward. Such lighting shall be automatically extinguished between the hours of 11 p.m. and dawn except as specifically approved by appropriate officers or agents of the Township for sign lighting on the premises of all-night commercial operations. All such fixtures shall be so designed or fitted to concentrate the light output onto and not beyond the sign or billboard.

k. Except as specifically approved by appropriate officers or agents of the Township, fixtures meeting IESNA full-cutoff criteria shall not be mounted in excess of twenty (20) feet above finished grade. Fixtures not meeting IESNA “cutoff” criteria, when specifically approved by appropriate officers or agents of the Township, shall not be mounted in excess of sixteen (16) feet above grade.

l. Directional fixtures, e.g., floodlights or spotlights, for such applications as façade, fountain, feature, recreational and landscape illumination shall be aimed so as not to project their output beyond the objects intended to be illuminated, and shall be extinguished between the hours of 11 p.m. and dawn.

m. The use of white strobe lighting for tall structures such as smokestacks, chimneys and radio/communications/television towers is prohibited during hours of darkness.

n. It is recognized that since topographic and atmospheric conditions surrounding the Village of Eckley are uniquely suited for astronomical observation and since an observatory has been established in the Village's vicinity; Foster Township, through the provisions herein contained, promotes the reduction of light pollution which interferes with the successful operation of such observatory. For an area defined to be located within a one mile radius and centered at a longitude of -75.853 degrees West and latitude of 40.996 degrees North, the following requirements shall apply in addition to the other provisions of this ordinance:

(1) Low-pressure Sodium (LPS) and High-pressure Sodium (HPS) lamps are the preferred illumination source and their use is to be encouraged. All outdoor lighting for commercial, industrial, public recreational and institutional applications shall be by the use of full cutoff fixtures aimed downward and controlled by manual switches or by automatic switching devices such as time clocks or combination motion detectors and photocells, to permit extinguishing such fixtures between 9 p.m. and dawn.

(2) Average illuminance values shall not exceed minimum values of the current recommended practices of the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IESNA) or the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA).

4. Installation

a. Electrical feeds for fixtures mounted on poles shall be run underground, not overhead.

b. Poles supporting lighting fixtures for the illumination of parking areas and located directly behind parking spaces, shall be placed a minimum of five (5) feet outside paved area, curbing or tire stops, or on concrete pedestals at least thirty (30) inches high above the pavement, or suitably protected by other approved means.

c. Lighting fixtures shall not be mounted in excess of 20 feet above grade

5. Maintenance

Lighting fixtures and ancillary equipment shall be maintained so as always to meet the requirements of this Ordinance.

E. Plan Submission

1. For subdivision and land-development applications where site lighting is required or proposed, lighting plans shall be submitted to the Township for review and approval with any preliminary or final subdivision/land-development plan application and with any conditional use, special exception, variance application or building permit where applicable, and shall include:

a. A site plan, complete with all structures, parking spaces, building entrances, traffic areas (both vehicular and pedestrian), vegetation that might interfere with lighting, and adjacent uses that might be adversely impacted by the lighting, and a layout of all proposed fixtures by location, mounting height and type. The submittal shall include in addition to area lighting, architectural lighting, building-entrance lighting, landscape lighting, etc.

b. 10’x10’ illuminance-grid (point-by-point) plot of maintained footcandles, carried out to 0.0 footcandles, which demonstrates compliance with the light trespass, intensity and uniformity requirements as set forth in this Ordinance. The maintenance (light-loss) factor used in calculating the illuminance levels shall be documented on the plan.

c. Description of the proposed equipment, including fixture catalog cuts, photometrics, glare reduction devices, lamps, on/off control devices, mounting heights, pole foundation details and mounting methods. A pole foundation detail is to be provided on the plan.

2. When requested by appropriate officers or agents of the Township, applicant shall also submit a visual-impact plan that demonstrates appropriate steps have been taken to mitigate on-site and off-site glare and light trespass and to retain the Township’s intended character.

3. Post-approval alterations to lighting plans or intended substitutions for approved lighting equipment shall be submitted to the Township for review and approval. A note to that effect shall be placed on the lighting plan.

F. Post Installation Inspection

1. The Township reserves the right to conduct a post-installation nighttime inspection to verify compliance with the requirements of this Ordinance, and if appropriate, to require remedial action at no expense to the Township. A note to that effect shall be placed on the lighting plan.

G. Compliance Monitoring

1. Safety Hazards

a. If appropriate officers or agents of the Township judge a lighting installation creates a safety or personal-security hazard, the person(s) responsible for the lighting shall be notified in writing and required to take remedial action.

b. If appropriate corrective action has not been effected within thirty (30) days of written notification, the Township may commence legal action as provided in Section I. and J. below.

2. Nuisance Glare and Inadequate Illumination Levels

a. When appropriate officers or agents of the Township judge an installation produces unacceptable levels of nuisance glare, direct skyward light, excessive or insufficient illumination levels or otherwise varies from this Ordinance, the Township may cause written notification of the person(s) responsible for the lighting and require appropriate remedial action.

b. If appropriate corrective action has not been effected within thirty (30) days of notification, the Township may commence legal action as provided in Section I. and J. below.

H. Nonconforming Lighting

1. Any lighting fixture or lighting installation existing on the effective date of this Ordinance that does not conform with the requirements of this Ordinance, shall be considered as a lawful nonconformance subject to the following:

a. Unless minor corrective action is deemed by the Township to be an acceptable alternative, a nonconforming lighting fixture or lighting installation shall be made to conform with the applicable requirements of this Ordinance when:

(1) It is deemed by the Township to create a safety hazard

(2) It is replaced, abandoned or relocated

(3) There is a change in use of the property on which the area being illuminated in located

b. Nonconforming lighting fixtures and lighting installations shall be made to conform with the requirements of this Ordinance or removed within two (2) years after the effective date of this Ordinance.

I. Violations and Penalties

1. Any person who violates or permits a violation of this Ordinance shall, upon being found liable therefore in a civil enforcement proceeding commenced by the Township before a District Justice, pay a fine of not more than $500, plus all court costs including reasonable attorney’s fees, incurred by the Township in the enforcement of this Ordinance. No judgment shall commence or be imposed, levied or payable until the date of the determination of the violation by the District Justice. If the defendant neither pays nor timely appeals the judgment, the Township may enforce the judgment pursuant to the applicable Rules of Civil Procedure. Each day a violation exists shall constitute a separate offense.

2. The appropriate officers or agents of the Township are hereby authorized to seek legal and/or equitable relief, including injunction, to enforce compliance with this Ordinance.

J. Abatement of Nuisances

1. In addition to any other remedies provided in this Ordinance, any violation of Section D.3. hereof, Control of Nuisance and Disabling Glare, shall constitute a nuisance and shall be abated by the Township by either seeking mitigation of nuisance or appropriate equitable or legal relief from a court of competent jurisdiction, including enforcement under the Township’s Nuisance Ordinance.

Effective Date: This ordinance shall become effective immediately upon enactment.

ENACTED AND ORDAINED this___day of month, year.

FOSTER TOWNSHIP

BOARD OF SUPERVISORS

Attest: