By Adam Swift
Last week, the city council approved an ordinance that sets fines for nuisance outdoor lighting.
The council approved a version that was successfully amended by Ward 3 Councillor Anthony Cogliandro that lowered the fines for the nuisance lighting from $300 to $50 if the issue was not addressed by property owners.
“Myself and Councillor (Joanne) McKenna, we heard the council’s recommendations loud and clear,” said Cogliandro. “We know that there are still some issues with it, but we did change – if there is an issue with lighting and someone has to pull a permit to update it, that will not trigger other issues in the home that are grandfathered in and have to be renovated. The holiday lighting portion of the ordinance was removed, as well as if there is a complaint made on someone’s home, they now have 21 days to hire an electrician or have one come into their home to fix the issue before there are any sorts of fines.”
Ward 4 Councillor Paul Argenzio asked what the process would be to determine a violation through the inspectional services department, since that department does not have staff that works at night.
“I would assume that like many other things in the city, that if there is a complaint made, they would have to provide proof,” said Cogliandro. “For instance, if someone’s light is shining directly into your yard – which I really think is going to be the major issue that we potentially solve with this – someone takes a picture or a video and sends it in as evidence. We have to do the same thing with … noise complaints, illegal building, things like that.
“It’s a great point that they don’t work at night, but I am sure with evidence they could contact that person and say turn lights off, point them down, solve the issue quickly.”
Cogliandro also noted that the ordinance would not apply to the city’s outdoor athletic fields.
During last week’s zoning subcommittee meeting on the issue, Councillor-at-Large Michelle Kelley said she thought the amendments made to the proposed ordinance were great, but that she still could not support the ordinance because of its subjectivity and enforcement difficulty.
“The glare aspect is something that can probably only be seen at night,” said Kelley. “To me, it is too subjective – when does that raise an issue, how much glare is going to be a problem? I think it’s still too subjective, so that’s the concern that I have now.”
Kelley and Ward 2 Councilor Ira Novoselsky voted against the ordinance at the regular council meeting following the subcommittee meeting. Novoselsky also raised concerns about enforcement of the ordinance.