What could a light pollution bylaw look like in Guelph? City staff want to hear from you

The City of Guelph wants to hear from the community about a new bylaw its considering.

The city is looking at whether or not to implement a dark sky bylaw to curb excess or inappropriate use of outdoor lighting. 

"Usually, it's too much light with glare, light trespassing and clutter, so too many lights cluttered in one spot," Doug Godfrey, general manager of operations for the City of Guelph told CBC News. 

"It's involving all types of lights. Everything from mobile lights from cars, street lights to residential lighting and lighting that you have on businesses and parking lots and signs."

Godfrey said city council asked staff in 2017 to look into light pollution in the city as a result of a number of concerns that the city received, particularly around light trespassing. 

"Whether it be a business whose lights are going into a neighbouring property or from one residence to another. That's the majority of concerns that we hear," he said. 

Other concerns city staff hear are around how light pollution affects wildlife, like migratory birds, Godfrey said. 

Other municipalities like Mississauga, London and Leamington have light pollution bylaws.

Property standards bylaw in Waterloo require that "all exterior lights shall not cause light to trespass on to adjacent properties that would likely disturb the inhabitants or shine directly into a dwelling unit."

Godfrey said if the community was interested in a light pollution bylaw, staff would look at community feedback to determine what what kinds of regulations would be part of the new by law.

"Some of the regulations that could be considered would be the type of light fixtures, the direction in which the light fixture is pointing to, the timing which a light fixture may be permitted to operate," he said.

A study published by the Science in January found stars are becoming increasingly difficult to see due to an increase in light pollution, which may have consequences for humans, ecosystems and more. 

The study found a seven to 10 per cent annual increase in sky brightness, far more than what satellites have detected in the past and it may be due to the use of LEDs, which are brighter and contain more blue light.

"Blue light scatters more in the atmosphere, so you get more light scattering back down to Earth," Christopher Kyba, a light pollution physicist at the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences in Bochum, Germany and the study's lead author told CBC in January.