ALAMOSA — After frequent comments from members of the public both advocating for and against a DarkSky initiative in Alamosa plus presentations made by city staff to Alamosa’s Planning Commission on the benefits and obstacles to becoming a DarkSky community, members of the Alamosa City Council recently voted on a compromise ordinance. 

Background provided by city staff to council members essentially summarized the history. 

SLV Great Outdoors (SLVGO!), a non-profit in the San Luis Valley, has been working toward the creation of the Sangre de Cristo Dark Sky Reserve, a designation by DarkSky International (DSI), which aims to protect nighttime skies and has been enacted in other areas in the state and nation.  

Achieving this designation requires that at least 80% of the population in surrounding areas, including the city of Alamosa, comply with DSI standards. This makes Alamosa's participation critical to the Reserve's success.  

Earlier this year, Alamosa’s Planning Commission held two meetings, including a public hearing where there was an abundance of public comments in favor, in opposition and neutral to Alamosa’s participation.  

The concerns expressed mainly related to signage, curfews after which commercial lighting would be turned off, who would enforce regulations and the cost of enforcement.  

During the discussion, DSI’s requirement imposing a curfew on signs and sign design standards seemed to be the focus of contention.  

At the November 6 meeting, the council was presented with several options, ranging from an alternative that was less restrictive to one that met DSI’s rigorous standards. 

Council voted for the “less” alternative by unanimous vote. 

The ordinance, titled “Ordinance No. 27-2024, an Ordinance Amending the Unified Development Code with Respect to Lighting”, is available on the city’s website as an attachment to the agenda for the November 6 meeting.  

The document is also 10 pages long and complicated, including numerous definitions and clarifications. To get a better picture of the “big pieces,” the public needs to know, the Valley Courier reached out to Deacon Aspinwall, Alamosa’s Planning and Development Specialist who has been involved in the DarkSky conversation.  

Aspinwall said the ordinance boils down to four basic tenets, emphasizing that these amendments only impact new construction or are triggered when significant work is done on existing structures that would require a building permit. 

 As Aspinwall explains it, the first change is that all lights have to be shielded so that the light only shines downward. For example, a fixture attached to the side of a building where light shines upward and outward would have to have some kind of cover installed that would direct the light only toward the ground. 

Second, “the maximum brightness of light is turned down.” In other words, the light emitted from a source is less than what would be viewed as maximum brightness. 

Third, the maximum temperature of light is now established where all light has to be warmer (that is, on the redder end of the spectrum) instead of cooler (that is, the bluer end of the spectrum). 

Fourth, there is an establishment of best practices where “lighting is only used when it’s needed, where it’s needed and for as long as it’s needed.” This best practice encourages property owners to install motion sensors, timers or adaptive controls. 

Aspinwall said the city is checking its own practices, including a focus on the streetlights in downtown Alamosa that currently cast significant light into the sky at night. “We’re testing with a retrofit on those lights to cast the lights toward the ground instead of out and up into the sky,” he said. If they decide to proceed with the retrofit, the transition will be expensive and take time as there are 170 fixtures in the city that would need be fitted.  

But “the city is still trying,” he said, citing as examples new lighting that has been installed behind the brew pub, along the Alamosa Culture Trail on Hunt Avenue and downtown parking lot. 

The initiative to become part of the Dark Sky Reserve did not begin with city staff but, instead, was a grassroots movement that is devoted to preserving the dark skies overhead. While the changes may not be to the degree hoped for by some, “it’s a step forward in what will probably be a slow but steady transition,” said Aspinwall.