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As Barrhaven West Coun. David Hill reflected on the problem of light pollution in Ottawa, he was reminded of Cosmo Kramer’s struggle against an overpowering red glow on a particular episode of Seinfeld.
“Kramer opened up his blinds and he had the big flashing red neon Chinese restaurant sign right outside of them,” Hill said during a meeting of council’s emergency and protective services committee on Monday.
“And the whole episode essentially, I think, was the story of this motion.”
Actually, the offending restaurant was a Kenny Rogers Roasters, but Hill was otherwise on the right track about what a motion by Bay ward Coun. Theresa Kavanagh was aiming to stop.
Kavanagh said her ward has been seeing a lot of development. Some buildings are keeping common areas lit up all night, shining right into people’s homes.
“We looked into it and asked bylaw and they said we have nothing on our books,” she said. “We don’t have anything that looks after nuisance light. So I thought, well, we’ve got a hole in our system here and we need to fix it.”
City staff are working on modernizing bylaws all the time, so Kavanagh made a motion asking them to consider a new one on light pollution — or to at least amend another bylaw that would accomplish the same thing.
Her motion passed at committee and now goes to council for final approval later this month.
That doesn’t mean a new bylaw will land on councillors’ desks anytime soon, however. Kavanagh is simply asking city staff to include the idea for consideration as part of a bylaw review work plan that will come back to council after the October election.
But Kavanagh already has an idea of what she’d like to see. She said bylaws in other municipalities, like Mississauga and Richmond Hill, have already lit the way for Ottawa.
“Let’s use the example of a noise bylaw,” she said. “If somebody says they have a noise complaint, the bylaw officer has to go to their home and listen to it, and they can measure it in decibels. With light, they can go over and see that the light is going right into their rooms.”
Still, she said she’d prefer to see the city start with education over enforcement.
“Let’s get people educated to understand the effects of what they’re doing,” she said. “It’s not helpful to them or to their neighbours or to the animals to have lights that are just bright all over the place and not directed.”
Consider the bats
The committee heard about those effects from Chetna Misra, an architectural lighting designer who founded an organization called Lightbahn that studies responsible lighting design.
She said too much artificial light can disrupt sleep and affect local wildlife including bats, owls and migrating birds.
Misra said denser development is making conflicts over lighting more likely by bringing neighbours closer together, and she urged the city to draw up clear standards to reduce disputes.
But she said light pollution isn’t inevitable. It can be mitigated through better design like sensor-activated lights or shields that direct light downward.
That’s what Kavanagh wants the city to focus on. She said her aim isn’t to ban outdoor lighting, but to use it responsibly.
The motion came from Bay ward Coun. Theresa Kavanagh. (Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press)
“This is not about turning off lights,” she said. “In most cases it’s about redirecting them.”
Councillors said any bylaw will have to strike a balance, since some residential streets don’t have enough lighting and darkness can raise safety concerns.
“The contradiction with this one is my residents want more lighting, and they want less lighting,” said Coun. Riley Brockington, the committee chair.
Hill said he hopes any bylaw will target the “Kramer extreme light version shining in someone’s house” instead of darkening quiet suburban streets.