| As everyone who drives on Hwy 91 can see, the construction activity on the soccer fields has picked up. Plans are for four of the five soccer fields to be lit for night time playing. As this project is going to very dramatically change the view to the west of Ivins, we wanted to update you on our efforts. Ivins Night Sky (INS), our local non-profit advocacy group for maintaining the dark sky that we all enjoy, has spent considerable time and effort over the last three years communicating and working with the Shivwits Band and the Utah Youth Soccer Association (UYSA), the two organizations behind this development. At the direction of the Shivwits Band leadership, INS has primarily worked with their legal representative to create a way forward to influence the use of state-of-the-art technology to the sports lighting that will be installed. INS has provided the Shivwits Band the current Ivins lighting ordinance, which is quite good for dark sky compliant development. INS met once with representatives of the Shivwits Band and UYSA on site where assurances were given that offsite light pollution will be minimized. INS presented to the Shivwits Band Council to promote the use of state-of-the-art technology and offered to sponsor a lighting design review and raise funds for the differential in cost to utilize state of the art lighting products. Unfortunately, the INS efforts have not resulted in a collaborative effort with the Shivwits Band and communication back from the Shivwits Band leadership has been minimal. The Shivwits are a sovereign nation and do not come under any Ivins City regulations. The Shivwits Band has stated that they respect the night sky and want to do lighting design their own way. We know that sports fields build these days generally feature downward facing lighting and are much better than the sports fields of old like the ones at Unity and Archie Gubler Parks. We were especially encouraged when we received this reply from the Utah Youth Soccer Assoc. to an early request for information about their lighting plans: “Please be assured this project has been thoroughly researched and strategized for this complex to not only be a positive development for the Shivwits Band of Paiutes, but also have the least amount of impact possible on the community of Kayenta and the other surrounding communities.” INS will continue to be open to communication and collaboration with the Shivwits Band and will do whatever we can to help facilitate a lighting plan that protects the night sky. Thank You. |
