Annoying Neighbors Dept.- Exterior lighting in landmarked neighborhood

http://cdn.brownstoner.com/5138c04e56a11-.jpg

Our next door neighbors have just completed their facade and front porch rennovation in landmarked CH.  Looks good, happy for them (and us by proxy).  However, they have installed an extremeley bright light fixture in the front yard of their house that they have tilted up to shine a great white light on their new facade.  Besides being, IMO, in extremeley poor taste, this light is shinging an incredible amount of bright light directly into the top 3 floors of our house.   Doesn’t Landmarks have some tight rules concerning exterior lighting?  Certainly a 300W LED fixture isn’t in step with the original lighting…  I’d like to speak to the neighbors directly about how this light is negativley afffecting us but I’d also like to have a little backup with me when I do speak to them about it. TIA for your responses.

ITWorks

in Landmarks 12 years and 6 months ago

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eric3872 | 12 years and 6 months ago

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Yes, LPC regulates exteior lighting.  If the lighting was installed without an LPC permit they will get a violation.

pythagoras | 12 years and 6 months ago

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The Energy Conservation Construction Code (accessible on line at http://publicecodes.cyberregs.com/st/ny/st/b1200v10/index.htm?bu=NY-P-2010-999999) limits the wattage of lighting in new construction. This may not be filed as part of the application, so may not be legal. 300W is about $0.06/hour, or $0.70 a day. That means about $260 a year just to light the face of the building. Advocate that they put it on a timer to shut off at 9PM, thus saving 3/4 of that annual total, but still allowing them to show off their house. The other post about light pollution is also germaine.

dnk | 12 years and 6 months ago

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Aiming lights upward is such a dumb thing to do.  My sympathies at having such a neighbor.   If the landmark route doesn’t pan out, maybe you can win the neighbor over in a friendly face-to-face talk.  There is plenty of research showing that light pollution effects people’s ability to sleep.   Appeal to his sympathy.   And there is also the lamentable loss of urban stargazing.  Maybe you can send him this link:  http://www.pbs.org/pov/citydark/#.UTkDpjd6SSo   If that doesn’t work (this forum sucks for pasting links), just google “the city dark PBS”

m926bk | 12 years and 6 months ago

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If that link doesn’t work, search for LPC Work Guidelines & Materials Checklist.

m926bk | 12 years and 6 months ago

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LPC does regulate exterior lighting, although it is more the fixture and conduit, not the wattage.  http://www.nyc.gov/html/lpc/downloads/pdf/pubs/workguide.pdf