Some things to know about the Horseshoe Bay Outdoor Lighting Ordinance
When Stan Farmer, the Horseshoe Bay City Manager, told me that the city wanted to become a Dark-Sky city, I was honored that he would ask for my input, and very happy to help out in any way I could. As a long-time member of the International Dark-Sky Association I have always promoted responsible outdoor lighting practices. I believe that any city would do well by adding some reasonable restrictions on outdoor lighting. I’ve also been designing and installing outdoor lighting systems in Horseshoe Bay for about 11 years now, and have participated in efforts to conserve our dark skies in the hill country. The Horseshoe Bay Outdoor lighting ordinance went into effect on February 17th of this year.
When evaluating a lighting plan it’s important to remember that most of us genuinely enjoy spending time outdoors after dark. But to be completely comfortable, we have to have some lighting for safety and security reasons. The trick is to not overdo it and to do it smartly. Most homeowners are actually surprised at how little it takes to light walkways and steps well to avoid trips and falls. It’s been a well-known fact that good outdoor lighting will help to keep the “boogie man” or other criminal element away as well. Also, nice outdoor lighting looks good, darn it! One last thing to mention here is that low voltage LED landscape lighting, when well-designed, installed and aimed properly, has virtually no impact on the night time skies. Believe me, my home is a test facility and has far more lights than I would ever design for a client — and I have a wonderful starry sky above that I can see just fine.
The primary focus of this lighting ordinance is to limit the amount of lumens on a property to a reasonable level, and to keep the outdoor lighting on the property where it is installed. Ultimately, it’s meant to be good neighbor lighting. Here are the primary lighting restrictions that the residents should keep in mind within the Horseshoe Bay city limits:
- First, if you have any old mercury vapor lighting at your home it will have to be replaced with warm white lighting when it quits working. This will be unavoidable anyway because mercury vapor lighting has been banned in the United States for the past few years.
- The next thing is the color of your outdoor lighting. It must be a warm white color, not to exceed 3200K. This is the approximate color of halogen lighting, like what you may have inside your home. Biggest selections of the best free slots find here. If you are purchasing light bulbs at the home improvement store, look for warm white or soft white and check the color temperature on the package. LED and compact fluorescent lighting will have this information on the package. I must stress that you do NOT want cool white, pure white or daylight color for your outdoor lighting because it will NOT meet the outdoor lighting restrictions.
Required Horseshoe Bay Post Light Fixture - Now for the “required” post light. There are some properties that have more than one of these mandatory fixtures, and there has been some confusion about the operation of the post lights. So here is the way I understand it: Every home in Horseshoe Bay is required to have at least one of the approved fixtures in their yard, which must have their address numbers on it. It must operate from dusk to dawn, and have a warm white light bulb in it that cannot exceed 1800 initial lumens. Please note that 1800 lumens as shown in this video is an extraordinary amount of light – far more than you would ever want in this post light fixture. A lamp that bright will cast tremendous glare that could actually be a hazard to your safety and your neighbor’s comfort. The color, again, is not to exceed 3200K (warm white). I recommend using a 6 watt (40 watt equivalent) warm white (2700K) CREE LED light bulb.
- Any exterior lights on your property cannot be aimed at the street or your neighbor’s house, and must have glare protection. If you have bare bulb “security lights” on the corners of your home, please call us to install clip-on glare shields and adjust them properly for you. We’re very happy to do that, and your neighbors will love you for it!
- Here is one of my favorite restrictions: Up lighting fixtures on trees are limited to 600 initial lumens, which is about the same as a 50 watt halogen light. Any other up lighting on a project cannot exceed 400 initial lumens or about the equivalent of a 35 watt halogen light. This pretty much does away with any HID (high intensity discharge) lighting like metal halide high voltage lighting. In the end, most homeowners will be much happier with the softer, more natural looking light that low voltage LED can produce, and will find it a more economical choice as well.
- Horseshoe Bay residences are allowed 10,000 lumens per acre for their outdoor lighting. This restriction is probably tighter than I would have liked as a designer, but a beautiful lighting system can be designed within these limitations. Some of the fixtures I use produce as few as 35 lumens, while others (rarely used) may produce as many as 590 lumens. My primary design fixtures only produce about 140 lumens, so it’s easy to see that we have plenty of flexibility with these restrictions.
If you have any questions about the new lighting ordinance in Horseshoe Bay, or want more information on dark-sky friendly lighting designs, please contact us here.
