To help preserve night skies, Sisters launches residential outdoor lighting rebate program
SISTERS, Ore. (KTVZ) -- The city of Sisters has launched an outdoor lighting rebate program for residential property owners, to help defray the costs of replacing outdoor lighting fixtures with ones that comply with the city’s Dark Skies lighting ordinance.
The city said the goal of the rebate program that began on Friday is to reduce light pollution by removing outdoor lighting that is too bright and not downcast and/or fully shielded and replacing them with dark skies compliant lighting.
"Doing so will help ensure the star-filled skies remain for viewing, protect wildlife and human health, and help us all be good neighbors with our lighting," the city said in a news release that continues below:
Recently, the city updated the Dark Skies outdoor lighting ordinance to address community concerns about increasing light pollution in Sisters.
Shortly after, the community received special designation as a DarkSky Community by DarkSky International (the largest community in Oregon). In addition to recognition, one requirement of the designation and the ordinance is to bring all non-compliant lighting into conformance with the new ordinance within five years of its adoption, or by February of 2029.
To help address lighting non-compliance, the Sisters City Council budgeted $5,000 for the first round of the lighting rebates. To make this rebate go as far as possible, the allowance is up to $50/lighting fixture, with a maximum of $200/property and owner.
If the residential rebate program is successful, the city says it will likely be expanded in the future to include multi-family, commercial, and industrial properties.
How does one know if their lighting is out of conformance? First, go outside and look at them, preferably at night. Do your lights shine up towards the sky (fully or at least partially)? If so, they are not considered downcast and the fixtures may have to be replaced.
Also, walk to your property line. Can you see all or a portion of the light source (i.e., the bulb) directly? If so, the lighting is not fully shielded.
Now, look at the specifications on your light bulb for the lumens and correlated color temperature (or CCT), which describes the "warmth" or "coolness" of white light measured in Kelvins. If it is above 850 lumens and/or 3,000 K, then they are not in compliance with the lighting ordinance and need to be warmer in color (think yellow/orange). A simple solution is to replace the light bulbs.
"Light pollution is unique, because every person can have an instant positive influence on reducing its effect; simply by modifying our outdoor lighting, each person's actions add up very quickly to preserving a special resource of being able to see a star-filled night sky while also caring for our community member's health and the needs of wild creatures who depend of night darkness," said local high school science teacher and Dark Skies advocate Rima Givot.
Questions? Would you like to apply? Information can be found here or call Scott Woodford, Community Development Director at 541-323-5211 or Jacob Smith, Code Enforcement Officer at 541-323-5214.
