Initiative Update – Ivins Night Sky

Ivins Survey Results

Hope you’re all reviewing the survey responses, lots of good news. Here’s just a sample:

WHAT RESIDENT NEEDS SHOULD IVINS CITY FOCUS ON?

ALL residents:

Continue to regulate outdoor lighting to maintain a dark night sky 16.2% (1-2) 9.5% (3) 74.3% (4-5) this is the 2nd highest ranking out of 28 after open space & trails (81.1%)

Residents here less than 1 year (all neighborhoods) – protecting Dark Sky was #1

Continue to regulate outdoor lighting to maintain a dark night sky 10.3% (1-2) 8.1% (3) 81.6% (4-5)

Even when broken down by neighborhoods, protecting the night sky is one of the top priorities.

https://ivins.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=2&event_id=1084&meta_id=161222

Ivins Night Sky continues to focus on protecting our Night Sky

In September 2021 the Ivins City Council approved final revisions to the Outdoor Lighting Ordinance. While there were some very objectionable proposed changes in the beginning, because of your comments and concerns, the final ordinance retains strong provisions that will help protect our night sky.

Some of the major changes include:

– Definitions and clarifications were added for Illuminated Signs, Correlated Color Temperature (CCT), Kelvin, height of luminaires and visible light source.
– Electronic Message Boards were listed under “Prohibited Lighting”.
– Maintained that the standard CCT for residential outdoor lighting and non-residential lighting for streets and parking lots shall be 3,000 degrees K or less.
– Inserted figures describing and providing requirements for light trespass, fully-shielded fixtures, walkway lighting, canopy lighting.
– Clarified that backlighting must not be visible beyond your property boundary.
– Requires security lighting be on a timer and not be triggered by off-property activity.
– Added requirements for private sport court facilities.

What’s happening with the Shivwits soccer fields?

If you have recently driven out Highway 91 past Fire Lake you may have noticed the earth-moving equipment behind the Shivwits Gas Station & Convenience Store. The Shivwits Band is constructing a soccer field complex complete with lighting for night games. Ivins Night Sky has been working with the Shivwits since March 2021 to influence the design of the lighting system so it minimizes the light pollution off-site. What we do not want is sports lighting similar to what exists at nearby Unity Park, Gubler Park and The Canyons Softball Fields where the lights are not properly shielded and broadcast light well beyond the sports fields into neighboring communities. The ultimate goal is a design that approaches the International Dark Sky Association’s criteria for ‘Community Friendly Sports Lighting’.

So far the Shivwits Band has taken this effort seriously, as they have a positive ethic towards environmental conservation and also want to minimize light pollution and its impact on Dark Skies. The reality is a well-designed lighting system is going to have additional costs and there will likely be a community fund-raising effort to help defray the incremental cost. More information will be following.

For more information, please click on these links:

Utah Youth Soccer Legacy Fields at Shivwits

A Soccer Mecca: Complex groundbreaking a big step for both Shivwits, Utah Youth Soccer Association

International Dark Sky Community-Friendly Sports Lighting Design Certification

March 20, 2021: City Council’s Decision & Next Steps

On Thursday March 18th, the Ivins City Council decided to break the Outdoor Lighting Ordinance issue into two parts.

Part 1 will be a public hearing on April 1st to consider: (1) a prohibition of electronic message boards; (2) increasing the color temperature for residential from 2700K to 3000K, and, (3) lowering the output of flag lighting from 6,000 to 1,500 lumens.

Part 2 will take place after April 1st, when the Council will consider all of the other changes proposed by the Planning Commission.

We agree with the message board and flag lighting changes. The residential increase is reasonable.

We do not agree with many of the other Planning Commission recommendations, which will be considered after April 1st.

If you agree with us and haven’t signed our Letter of Support yet, please do it now (Click here for the Letter of Support).

If you are not sure if you signed the Letter of Support, do it again. We will watch for duplicates.

We need to show the City Council that a lot of people object to the Planning commission’s recommendations. Please reach out to people you know in Ivins and encourage them to sign the Letter of Support.

Based on the discussion at Thursday’s Council meeting, it appears the April 1st public hearing and any resulting decision will not include the more concerning recommendations from the Planning Commission. But anything can happen. So, if you are able to speak at the public hearing, either in person or using Zoom, about the issues that concern you, thank you.

As of March 20th, more than 1,200 Ivins residents, all adults, have added their names to the Letter of Support. The map below shows there is broad support from all over the city. Please add your name and increase our collective voice.

Night Sky Candidate Responses

Do Candidates for Ivins City Support the Night Sky?

As most of you know, two Ivins City Council seats and the mayor position are up for election this November. Because of the number of candidates who have filed to run, there will be a primary between the six city council candidates on August 10, 2021.

Decisions by the City Council can have a huge impact on protecting and preserving the integrity of our night skies. Right now the Council is still considering the proposed changes submitted by the Planning Commission, many of which would negatively impact our night skies. Who is elected in the upcoming election can make a tremendous difference.

We thought it was important for our supporters to get an idea of where each candidate stands in regard to our night sky so we submitted a quick survey to each candidate and are very appreciative and pleased that most completed the survey.

Here are the candidates with a link to their survey responses:

Cheyne McDonald
Derek Larsen
Lance Anderson
Mike Scott
Paul Bryson
Stephanie Webb (no response)

Mayor
Andy Appel (no response)
Chris Hart

Please vote for the candidate you think would do the most to protect our night sky. The primary will be by mail so if you will be traveling or staying at another address, you can apply for an ABSENTEE BALLOT here.

DEADLINE FOR REQUESTING A CHANGE OF ADDRESS FOR YOUR BALLOT IS FRIDAY, JULY 9TH!!!

1. Click “Register to Vote or update registration”
2. You’ll need your driver’s license number and last 4 digits of your SS # to verify your identity and the address you want your ballot forwarded to.
3. As you answer the questions, be sure and indicate how long you want to use the temporary address.

Traditionally non-presidential elections have low voter turnout, but as we’ve seen, who sits on our city council is vitally important. So this election is just as important as any other. Please be sure to vote in the primary and apply for absentee ballot if necessary.

Thank you for your support and thank you to the candidates who took the time to complete our survey.

Ivins Mayor addresses Planning Commission about its Outdoor Lighting Ordinance discussions

Mayor Hart addressed the Planning Commission last night about the Commission’s discussion about making changes to the Outdoor Lighting Ordinance. Jeffrey Burch, an Ivins resident, listened to the meeting and sent us the following summary of the Mayor’s key comments.

He noted that he was typing quickly and these are not direct quotes. But we listened to the meeting too and his summary appears accurate to us.

Editor’s note: Click here if you want to hear his complete presentation and then click on the second “A” (Discuss existing lighting ordinance). The Mayor’s comments go from approximately the 10 minute point to 23 minutes.

Planning Commissioners are appointed by the mayor, with the advice of the City Council, to perform the crucial planning function for the City Council for action that is ultimately taken and implemented.

Night sky discussions date back a very long time, before I was here.

I am reminding you the purpose of the Planning Commission is to implement the General Plan. There are several references to the protection of the night sky in the General Plan. It is part of the vision statement for the city.

As you go through your deliberation and you find your discussion to be in contrast to the principals of the General Plan, this is not what you have been put in place as a Planning Commissioner to do.

I would like to correct some conjecture about the Dark Sky Initiative (Ivins Night Sky Initiative). I feel that having international designation as a Dark Sky Community would be a feather in the cap for Ivins.

I asked the Rocky Vista University to work with the Dark Sky Initiative to filter the 4,000K lights that were obnoxious to look at from below the university, which most of the city is.

They came up with the amber filters to simulate the pleasant illumination of the high-pressure sodium lights that are no longer available for replacement.

High pressure sodium lamps were the global standard of safe lighting for decades.

Bob, I have heard you reference individual property owners about lighting their property as they want, but I would remind you that a city that has a clear vision of itself can establish its own standards. This is supported all the way up to the Utah Supreme Court.

This discussion at Planning Commission meetings has gone awry and away from the principles of the General Plan.

The City Council CAN revise the General Plan as it is a living document, but it is NOT the role of the Planning Commission to revise the General Plan or any of its principles.

Activity update: March 2019

Based on previous meetings with City staff, we prepared a 40-page report recommending changes to the City’s Outdoor Lighting Ordinance and presented it to the City at the beginning of March.

Rob Roush, developer of the proposed Red Desert subdivision in Ivins, has been working with us to create his subdivision’s CC&Rs that meet our vision and significantly exceed what the City’s Outdoor Lighting Ordinance currently requires. We were delighted to review his filed CC&Rs on March 5th.

On March 7th, the City Council sent our report to the City’s Technical Review Committee for its recommendations before sending it to the Planning Commission for a public hearing and recommendation.

During March, our Technical Committee analyzed most of the City-owned outdoor lighting and a sampling of commercial outdoor lighting to help determine appropriate recommendations for changes to the City’s Outdoor Lighting Ordinance. Our Technical Committee will continue to analyze issues the City needs more information on.

The Events Committee met three times in March to plan two April events: (1) A presentation at Red Mountain Resort on April 24th, and (2) an information table and street art sponsorship at the Kayenta Street Painting Festival on April 27th and 28th.

In addition to our four-person board of Directors and four technical advisors, the Initiative now has 21 volunteers working on our Events and Technical committees. That sounds like a lot and it is… but we need as much help as we can get. So, let us know if you can share some of your time and expertise.

On March 21st, the Mayor and City Council took time to formally recognize and congratulate the student artists who won the competition we sponsored, for their paintings interpreting the night sky over Ivins. The five winning paintings were on display at City Hall for most of March.

On March 26th we received 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status by the IRS.

On March 30th we conducted our second Sky Quality Survey.

Activity Update: February 2019

We didn’t do this yet, but we want you to know about it: We plan to hold a meeting at Red Mountain Resort at the end of March or the first week of April for anyone interested in learning more about what the Initiative is doing and planning to do. (Thank you Red Mountain Resort for donating meeting space for us.) It will be an opportunity to ask questions and to volunteer some time and expertise, if you want, on any projects that look interesting to you.

Last night we did our first measurements of the color temperature of outdoor lighting in Ivins with the help of Rob Roush, a developer interested in maximizing dark sky friendly lighting. We used a professional spectrograph borrowed from the International Dark Sky Association. We need to do more of these measurements because getting the color temperature “right” in our ordinance is critical, because it sets the “look” of Ivins in the future.

The Mayor and City Council were impressed by the art created by the five Vista students who received awards in our February contest for their interpretation of the night sky over Ivins. In fact, they were so impressed by the students’ efforts that they asked the students to showcase their art at City Hall on March 21st and receive formal recognition from the City Council.

We met with the Mayor to discuss all of our current and planned activities, and to create a schedule for preparing a draft ordinance and research plan for the City Council to consider. We are planning a work meeting in early March with the Mayor, City Manager, Public Works Director, and the Building & Zoning Administrator to finalize the draft ordinance and research plan. Tentatively, we intend to deliver these to the City Council on March 21st.

The Ivins Night Sky Initiative was incorporated as a Utah nonprofit corporation in late February. Then we filed for recognition from the IRS as a 501(c)(3) tax exempt entity.

We created draft Bylaws and a Board of Directors to do a better job of moving the Initiative forward professionally. The Bylaws allow for 3 to 9 Board members. The initial Board members are: Patty Dupre, Sue Gordhammer, Kai Reed, and Mike Scott. The first Board meeting is on March 1st.

We completed our survey of City owned street lighting. This gave us enough information to analyze what it would cost the City to meet the requirements to get designated as a Dark Sky Community.

We signed up to have an information table about dark sky friendly outdoor lighting at the Kayenta Street Painting Festival on April 27th and 28th. And to add some excitement, we commissioned professional artist, Anat Ronen, to create a street painting at the Festival showing her interpretation of the night sky over Ivins.

The St. George News gave the winning Vista School art students and their paintings a lot of coverage in Grade-schoolers interpret Ivins night sky through art contest. Here’s one more way the art contest gets the message out about improving, preserving, and protecting our night sky.

We wrapped up our student art contest at Vista School on February 12th with five awards for the best interpretations of the night sky over Ivins. We will use these students’ artwork in our educational outreach materials.

If we didn’t mention something you did to advance the mission of this Initiative, please tell us. And if you would like to get involved in any of these projects or other projects we plan to start working on soon, let us know. And let us know about any ideas you have for other projects.

We need all the help and expertise we can get. Send us an email from the Contact us page.

Activity Update: January 2019

Here’s an update of what happened in January:

The Initiative launched on January 8th with this website and a 4-page position paper emailed to people who previously expressed an interest in protecting the night sky.

The launch got coverage from St. George News, The Independent, KDXU, and FOX 13. The Spectrum also covered the Initiative in a detailed article a couple of days ago after interviewing Mayor Hart.

We met with the Mayor to discuss, generally, the outdoor lighting ordinance changes the International Dark Sky Association requires, then met with City staff to get their input.

Chris Haddad presented the position paper to about 50 members of the Shadow Canyon HOA.

Ron Smith, a local astronomer and educator, briefly mentioned the Initiative at his January Voyager Lecture at the Kayenta Arts Foundation.

Eva Lorentzen, the Art Teacher at Vista School, began a student art competition for 6th through 8th grade art students this week. The art will be judged by Steven Stradley, the Visual Arts Instructor at Tuacahn High School, and awards and cash prizes for the best interpretation of the night sky will be announced on February 12th. See: Student Art Contest Starts Today

We published an outdoor lighting report and recommendation, Shedding Light on Outdoor LED Choices and looked up specifications for 30 LEDs available on Amazon to get the definitive answer about Comparing Lumens to Watts in Incandescent Bulbs

We created a first draft of proposed changes to the City’s outdoor lighting ordinance yesterday and sent it to the Mayor and staff for review and comments.

We began an inventory of City-owned outdoor lighting by driving around the city, counting and photographing existing lighting to determine where to determine how much lighting already meets the International Dark Sky Association’s requirements. (City-Owned Street Lighting Study: Part 1)

Activity Update: December 2018

We have been busy working on getting Ivins designated an International Dark Sky Community. This will take at least a year to accomplish, but we’re off to a great start. Here’s an update:

We have studied 9 ordinances that have been passed recently that meet the International Dark Sky Association’s requirements (IDA). The ordinances are from mostly Utah and Arizona communities. We put together a 13-page memo comparing the current Ivins ordinance with the IDA requirements and suggested revisions to our ordinance. Then we met with City staff to review all of this information. Our conclusion: There’s good news and bad, but mostly good news.

In addition to revising our ordinance, IDA requires a lot of other steps, including community outreach, education, monitoring sky brightness, etc. Here’s where we stand on these efforts and what’s next:

We will launch the community outreach/education on January 8th with a 4-page position paper.
We created this website with a fair amount of information and will regularly add more.
We’re working on conducting a student art contest in the next few months. We haven’t worked out all the details yet, but we’re close. There will be an award for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners plus a small cash prize for them (or a gift certificate). The winning art will be used in our community outreach and education.
We conducted our first night sky brightness survey on December 30th. We surveyed 9 locations in the City and will revisit these sites to conduct semiannual night sky measurements. We verified the appropriateness of those locations with a few local astronomers.
We also started work on creating a Night Sky Friendly Business Award for businesses. But we just started, so stay tuned for details.

There’s a lot more to do, but this is a good start. If you would like to get involved in any of these projects, let us know. We need all the help and expertise we can get. Send us an email from the Contact us page.