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<DIV><FONT face=Arial>The issue is not having lights "off." The
issue is directing the lights more, so leakage is not so extreme, both up to the
sky and beyond property lines. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>It is not simply a "County" issue. The City of
Moscow is in the process of writing a more comprehensive light ordinance.
</FONT><FONT face=Arial>And ordinances can be written to require the new rules
to apply to new construction, and grandfather the non-conforming until something
needs to be replaced or for an extended period of time, as the Moscow ordinance
attempts to do.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>The lighting portion is a small part of a very large
land use document in the County, and I couldn't agree more with you or Jeff or
the others who are seeking additonal comment and input on a living, breathing,
evolving ordinance that will most definitely affect the quality of life.
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>All I was suggesting is that it is not unreasonable to try
to require the innovations in light containment that have become routinely
available. Lighting technology has progressed to the point where these are
sound and reasonable requirements in many instances that will protect the rest
of us from others' lights. The better option in my mind is not to oppose
an ordinance that attempts to address light leakage, or for that
matter, smell leakage from a nearby hog feedlot or sound or dust leakage from a
nearby rock crushing quarry, but to consider whether the restrictions are
reasonable and feasible, and whether the imposition on neighbors from the use of
one's property is something that should be tolerated, ameliorated or
eliminated.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Bruce Livingston</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><FONT size=3></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=jwillard@turbonet.com href="mailto:jwillard@turbonet.com">Janice
Willard</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=vision2020@moscow.com
href="mailto:vision2020@moscow.com">'Vision 2020'</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Thursday, February 03, 2005 1:26
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: [Vision2020] Lights, Poetry
and Public Safety</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Hi Visionaries,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I do appreciate the poetic approach to the
lighting issue as I am also one who loves the night sky and lives to
appreciate the beauty of nature. In fact, I often leave my yard lights
off for just this purpose, reveling in the incredible quiet and blanketing
darkness, the moon, the stars and the auroras. At night, sound really
carries and I can hear planes revving up in Moscow Pullman Airport 10 miles
away. But often all I hear is a sandpiper calling from the streambed or
a dog barking a mile away. The beautiful, quiet, darkness is something I love
the best about living here. However, I feel that an important point here is
not being appreciated that I want to re-iterate.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>People in the country do not leave their lights
on because they want to mess up the star-gazing of their neighbors. They
leave them on for reasons of safety and security: having adequate lighting
around farm buildings is a deterrent to crime. The equipment sheds and
tool sheds often contain valuable items and having a well lit yard is one of
the primary ways to prevent the buildings from being broken into. Having a
lock on the door doesn't cut it--people can break a window or jimmy the
lock.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Now everyone in town knows this as well.
All the parking lots, public walkways and streets are lit as a safety measure
and deterrent to crime. And truth be told, it is the towns that generate a
huge amount of light at night--why else would you be coming out to the country
side to see the stars? Why are you asking the farmers to turn out their
yard lights, when you are not asking the malls, stores, Universities and city
to first turn out theirs? And if the lights are on in these
location, for the express purpose of safety and security, why are people
in town afforded this and not people in the country? I
remember that a very wise man once said that one should take the log out
of your own eye before trying to take the speck out of your
neighbor's eye. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Remember also that in the country, police and
ambulance service is a long way off. This is not a cut of the Sheriff's
department, just a reality of country living--you are often on your own. So if
someone in Harvard thinks there is a thief in one of their outbuildings
and doesn't want to confront them directly, they may call and find out
that the nearest deputy is in Deary. Having lighted outbuildings
deters crime, so this is a good reason to use them.
</FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I suspect that the main reasons for writing this
particular rule have little to do with farmers and more to due with preventing
lighting on outdoor signs, which do point upward. But it was written in
such a way to target country people for doing the very sensible thing of
having adequate lighting on their buildings. No wonder, that many of the
people out in the county, when looking into town and seeing the great glow of
city lights in the sky, would wonder why they are being targeted?
"Why don't you turn out your own damn lights first," is what I envision them
muttering. And this kind of town/county divide is not good for county
cohesiveness. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Which turns us back to the wordage of the county
ordinance--how can this be written in such a way that it prevents un-necessary
outdoor lights but allows people who live in the county to use their
traditional crime deterrent lighting where it is necessary? I really do
not believe that the zoning committee's intention was to prevent people from
deterring crime on their property--which is why public comment is such an
essential part of this process, so that things that are missed can be
addressed and corrected. I do not see this as an adversarial process, or
rather, it certainly doesn't need to be. The most beneficial thing for
our entire extended Latah County community to function better is to allow
people to help draft a document that works, not tell people to suck it up if
they don't like something. No one on the zoning committee gave me the
impression that they wanted to lord it over people and push an
agenda. They seemed very interested in creating a workable
document. Finding things that need to be corrected in the document
is very much a part of this process.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>And in reality, for those of you star gazers who
love the quiet night sky around Moscow, as much as I do, the yard lights on
farms is going to be no more than a fire fly in comparison to the huge amount
of light and noise pollution that will occur if the school district goes
ahead with their plan to build a god-awful, mega-complex, country club,
high school out in the farmland in north east Moscow. With all the
lights needed around its buildings, illuminating its planned play fields,
football stadium, auditorium and parking lots --like the Junior High
only a whole lot bigger and brighter and noisier--there will be no more night
sky for anyone to appreciate from Moscow north to Moscow Mountain! You
will need to go past Viola if you want to appreciate the
stars. But somehow it is okay for the city to raid the country and
destroy the country environment when they imagine they have a
need......</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Geeze, and you are worried about some poor farmer
who is trying to keep thieves out of his tool
shed......... </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>JW </FONT></DIV>
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