Yachats City Council approves new lighting ordinance, but with a night-time curfew on marine lighting, not a ban

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com

The Yachats City Council on Thursday passed a new set of regulations on residential and commercial lighting after trimming out wording that would have banned marine lighting from two motels and 7-8 oceanfront homes.

The vote was 3-1, with Mayor Leslie Vaaler voting no and newly appointed Councilor Anthony Muirhead recusing himself from the discussion and vote because he is the general manager of one of the motels that would have been most affected.

The vote came after more than 18 months work by the Planning Commission and after this council and a previous council three times sent the lighting ordinance back for various tweaks.

It also came in the fifth hour of a disorganized and unfocused online council meeting that started at 9:30 a.m. and didn’t wrap up until 2:20 p.m.

The new ordinance will take effect 30 days after language in the enabling ordinance is cleaned up and formally adopted by the council.

The ordinance mostly puts restrictions on the brightness of lights and so-called “trespass lighting” that spills from one house or business onto others’ property.

But it was the Planning Commission’s recommendation – twice rejected by the previous council which wanted some sort of compromise – to ban marine lighting from the motels and beachfront homes that drew all the attention and controversy.

The commission’s proposal considered by the council Thursday would have ended residential marine lighting immediately, given the Adobe Motel and Overleaf Lodge a year to turn theirs off, and instituted a nighttime curfew until they were gone.

Instead, the council agreed to prohibit any new marine lighting and institute a curfew – lights shining from the motels and houses must be off at 11 p.m. during Daylight Savings time and at 9 p.m. during Standard time.

Three speak in favor of lighting

Three people spoke against a ban on marine lighting during the council’s public hearing Thursday. No one spoke in favor of it.

Drew Roslund, managing general partner of the Overleaf Lodge and Fireside Motel, said the light atop the Overleaf is an important amenity to guests who may only spend 1-2 nights in Yachats. And he said people advocating turning Yachats into a “dark sky” community are not being realistic that it is possible on the Oregon coast.

“I can’t operate my business under the thumb of local, popular opinion …” he said. “I appreciate dark skies … but I can’t market something that’s going to happen 20 percent of the time.”

Coastal research agrees.

When the Central Lincoln People’s Utility District was investigating community solar projects two years ago, it found that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ranked the Oregon coast the second worst in the continental United States for solar access, with 70 percent of the year under 80 percent cloud cover.

But Roslund said he was very comfortable with a night-time curfew. “All I ask is to keep lights on a few hours after sunset,” he said.

Former mayor John Moore, who lives just north of the Adobe and several hundred yards south of the Overleaf, said the Planning Commission went too far recommending a ban on marine lighting. He said most members of the council and commission had moved to Yachats within the past four years, while the motels’ lights have been up for decades.

“How different is this from moving next to an airport and then complaining about the noise?” he asked.

Moore also said the three largest motels in town, including the Yachats Inn with a light on its pool roof, provide the bulk of the city’s general fund through their lodging taxes.

“Don’t bite the hands that feed you,” he said.

Betty Johnson, who lives just off Ocean View Drive, said she enjoyed the night-time lights and wondered how citizens could over-turn the new regulation if the council approved it.

Vaaler also read from two letters she received in support of keeping the lights.

Compromise worked out

Planning Commission Chair Lance Bloch urged the council to adopt the lighting ordinance, even if it had to trim out wording on marine lighting. The other issues of residential and commercial trespass lighting need to be addressed and not delayed, he said.

During councilors’ discussion, Vaaler said that the scientific articles and news stories given to the Planning Commission that supported a ban on marine lighting were not very balanced. There were no surveys or literature that promoted alternatives, she said, or other views.

“Environmental arguments can’t be black or white. If so, we’d ban cars,” she said. “I don’t think it’s in our city’s interest at this point to prohibit marine lighting.”

But Vaaler said she couldn’t support going forward with any part of the new ordinance because there was no mechanism suggested for enforcing trespass or other lighting issues.

But Bloch and other councilors said it was up to the city manager and the Yachats’ contract code enforcement company to find a way to respond to complaints – which, naturally, would come at night. Bloch also stressed that the Planning Commission does not expect an immediate change in residential or commercial lighting, but that the city will react to complaints and that changes will occur “slowly over a period of years.”

Councilor Ann Stott, who is a supporter of night (not dark) skies, suggested the compromise of allowing marine lighting but with the 9 p.m. or 11 p.m. shut off.

“We have to look at a compromise,” she said. “If we don’t do that then government doesn’t work.”