§ 395-47. Lighting requirements and design standards.

A. 

Purpose. The intent of the provisions in this section is to minimize the off-site impact of lighting while providing for lighting that is sufficient for safe use of a property, and to:

(1) 

Provide adequate lighting in outdoor public places where public health, safety and welfare are potential concerns;

(2) 

Protect drivers and pedestrian from the glare of nonvehicular light sources that shine into their eyes and thereby impair safe traverse;

(3) 

Protect neighbors and the night sky from nuisance glare and stray light from poorly aimed, placed, applied, maintained or shielded light sources; and

(4) 

Provide outdoor lighting in a manner consistent with the Borough goal of retaining small-town character.

B. 

Applicability.

(1) 

Outdoor lighting shall be required for safety and personal security in areas of public assembly and traverse, including but not limited to the following:

(a) 

Parking areas of multifamily, commercial, and industrial uses.

(b) 

Loading facilities for commercial and industrial uses.

(c) 

At the ingress and egress of parking areas for multifamily, commercial, and industrial parking areas.

(d) 

At street intersections.

(e) 

The Borough Council may require lighting to be incorporated for other uses or locations where personal security and safety reasons warrant, and as they deem necessary to further public health, safety, and welfare.

(2) 

The glare-control requirements herein contained apply to lighting in all above-mentioned uses as well as, but not limited to, sign, landscaping, and residential lighting.

C. 

Criteria.

(1) 

Illumination levels. Lighting, where required by this chapter, shall have intensities and uniformity ratios in accordance with but not limited to the following examples:

	Use/Task		Maintained Footcandles	Uniformity Average Minimum
	(a)	Streets, local residential	0.4 average	6:1
	(b)	Streets, local commercial	0.9 average	6:1
	(c)	Parking, residential, multifamily
		Low vehicular/pedestrian activity	0.2 minimum	4:1
		Medium vehicular/pedestrian activity
	(d)	Parking, industrial/commercial/ institutional/municipal	0.6 minimum	4:1
		High activity, e.g., regional shopping centers/fast-food facilities, major athletic/civic/cultural/ recreational events	0.9 minimum	4:1
		Medium activity, e.g., community shopping centers, office parks, hospitals, commuter lots, cultural/civic/recreational events	0.6 minimum	4:1
		Low activity, e.g., neighborhood shopping, industrial employee parking, schools, church parking	0.2 minimum	4:1
	(e)	Sidewalks, walkways and bikeways	0.5 average	5:1
	(f)	Building entrances, commercial, industrial, institutional	5.0 average	n/a

	NOTES:
	Illumination levels are maintained horizontal footcandles on the task, e.g., pavement or area surface.
	Uniformity ratios dictate that average illuminance values shall not exceed minimum values by more than the product of the minimum value and the specified ration (e.g., for commercial parking high activity, the average footcandles shall not be in excess of 3.6 [0.9 x 4]).

(2) 

Lighting fixture design. The following factors shall be considered when choosing the appropriate lighting fixture design:

(a) 

Fixtures shall be of a type and design appropriate to the lighting application.

(b) 

Fixtures shall be equipped with or be capable of being modified to incorporate light directing, shielding devices, or both, such as shields, visors or hoods when necessary to redirect offending light distribution or reduce direct or reflected glare.

(3) 

Control of glare.

(a) 

All outdoor lighting, whether or not required by this chapter, on private, residential, commercial, industrial, municipal, recreational or institutional property shall be aimed, located, designed, fitted and maintained so as not to present a hazard to drivers or pedestrians by impairing their ability to safely traverse (i.e., disabling glare) and so as not to create a nuisance by projecting or reflecting objectionable light onto a neighboring use or property (i.e., nuisance glare).

(b) 

Floodlights and spotlights shall be so installed and aimed so that they do not project their output into the windows of neighboring residences, adjacent uses, directly skyward or onto a roadway.

(c) 

Unless otherwise permitted by the Borough (e.g., for safety, security, or all-night operations), lighting shall be controlled by automatic switching devices such as time clocks or combination motion detectors and photocells, to permit extinguishing offending sources between 11:00 p.m. and dawn to mitigate nuisance glare and sky lighting consequences.

(d) 

Lighting proposed for use after 11:00 p.m., or after the normal hours of operation for commercial, industrial, institutional, or municipal applications, shall be reduced by 75% from 11:00 p.m. until dawn, unless needed for a specific purpose.

(e) 

Vegetation screens shall not be employed to serve as the primary means for controlling glare. Glare control shall be achieved primarily through the use of such means as cutoff fixtures, shields and baffles, and appropriate application of fixture mounting height, wattage, aiming angle and fixture placement.

(f) 

Externally illuminated signs and billboards shall be lighted by fixtures mounted at the top of the sign and aimed downward. Such fixtures shall be automatically extinguished between the hours of 11:00 p.m. and dawn, except as specifically approved by the Borough to illuminate necessary directional information.

(g) 

Directional fixtures used for architectural lighting (e.g., facade, fountain, feature and landscape lighting), shall be aimed so as not to project their output beyond the objects intended to be illuminated and shall be extinguished between the hours of 11:00 p.m. and dawn.

(h) 

Service station canopy lighting shall be accomplished using flat-lens full-cutoff downlighting fixtures, shielded in such a manner that the edge of the fixture shield shall be level with or below the light source envelope.

(i) 

The use of white strobe lighting for tall structures such as smokestacks, chimneys, and communications towers is prohibited, except as otherwise required under Federal Aviation Administration regulations.

D. 

Residential streetlighting fixture placement. Where required, streetlighting fixtures in residential developments shall be placed at the following locations:

(1) 

At the intersection of public roads with entrance roads to the proposed development.

(2) 

Intersections involving proposed public or non-public primary distributor streets within the proposed development.

E. 

Plan submission.

(1) 

In all commercial and industrial districts, lighting plans shall be submitted to the Borough for review and approval with applications for conditional use or special exceptions, preliminary or final subdivision, or land development plans, or variance applications. In addition, the Zoning Officer may require the submission of a lighting plan with any building permit application for other than single-family residential use. The required lighting plans shall include the following information:

(a) 

A site plan containing a layout of the proposed fixture locations by location and type. The site plan shall also include, as applicable, structures, parking spaces, building entrances, traffic areas (both vehicular and pedestrian), vegetation that might interfere with lighting, and adjacent uses that might be adversely impacted by the lighting.

(b) 

Footcandle plots for individual fixture installations and ten-foot-by-ten-foot illuminance grid plots for multi-fixture installations, which demonstrate compliance with the intensity and uniformity requirements set forth in this chapter.

(c) 

Description of the proposed equipment, including fixture catalog cuts, photometrics, glare-reduction devices, lamps, control devices, mounting heights, pole foundation details, and mounting methods proposed.

(2) 

When requested by the Borough, the applicant shall submit a visual impact plan that demonstrates appropriate steps have been taken to mitigate on-site and off-site glare.

(3) 

Post-approval alterations to lighting plans or intended substitutions for approved lighting equipment shall be submitted to the Borough for review and approval.

(4) 

When necessary, the Borough may retain the services of a qualified lighting engineer to review proposed lighting plans.