Lighting for Entrance Signs

Dear Brad,

Thanks for reaching out and communicating with me. Much appreciated and I do very much appreciate your time and efforts in maintaining the neighborhood.

Have you considered using a red light instead of a white light? I am willing to pay for a couple of red lights.

I am not in favor of trimming the hedge near the light. I like being able to enjoy the night and I find these lights very bright. I also like to use my telescope and this bright light will be picked-up by my telescope and will impair my ability to see objects. One of the features of the neighborhood is that there are no street lights.

In addition, bright lights interfere with circadian clocks of plants and animals including humans. Animals, including nocturnal insects and some birds, use the natural darkness, the moon, and stars for orientation and navigation. Most people probably do not even realize that the insect population is crashing and some of this is due excessive night lights as they become confused and disoriented. For example, many insects fly around bright lights until they become exhausted an die; so far I have not noticed this happening.

I realize my concerns probably represent a minority and I would not say anything if this was in a downtown part of a city. However, there are some in the neighborhood that have related to me an increase in night lighting from neighbors. Since I first moved here my neighbors backyards have become much brighter and some of this light has even penetrated into my yard and through some of my windows. Fortunately, they responded to my concerns, but there is still excessive lighting. I and many of my friends have always (since childhood) enjoyed to night and the slow transition from day to night. Being an amateur astronomer no doubt makes me more sensitive to this issue but it goes beyond that and I would feel this way even if I was not an amateur astronomer.

Again I appreciate your community efforts, which are important, and I very much appreciate you contacting me.

You can e-mail me directly and we can discuss this over the phone further. I tried to respond by a direct e-mail but I think the e-mail did not go through.

Respectfully,

Lawrence Brewer

Lawrence,

Thank you for the reply and the information. Very interesting. I can see that you are very passionate about issues related to excessive lighting.

There are several homes that have installed security lights and they can be very bright. This was one of the reasons we decided on a more decorative lighting of 150 lumens. Hopefully the low lighting will alleviate some of the impacts to the plants and animals compared to commercial grade lighting (like security and street lighting) while still providing an enhanced gateway into Homestead.

It is common for the direct replies to emails do not go through. The website does provide confidentiality since personal emails are hidden.

No worries on trimming the hedge.

Regards,
Brad Eldridge