Light Pollution Fight Flares Up

Residents not pleased at lights being added to playing fields
Vancouver Sun

Vancouver  people are getting quite upset," said Peter Lambur, a spokesman for Ambleside residents who are unhappy about a series of 24-metre (80-foot) light standards, each bearing multiple fixtures, that will be used to light two soccer and field-hockey pitches in Ambleside Park.

Similar stories are unfolding in other municipalities in the and internationally. A Google search of 4,500 international news sites Tuesday produced 67 current stories about light pollution from around the developed world, including Chicago, Vail, Colo., Grand Forks, N.D., London, England, and Zurich, Switzerland.

In West Vancouver, Lambur said Amblesiders took notice this summer when the tall light poles were erected. There had been no community consultation, he said, and while residents knew the fields were being upgraded to artificial turf, they had not been informed that night lighting would be added.

"There was a slow-growing outrage that these parks, which were used extensively for passive recreation -- people walking, jogging, throwing frisbees and so on -- were being gated and cut off and no longer available to the residents," Lambur said.

The Amblesiders said they will attend in force Thursday evening when the city holds a community meeting on the issue at the Ambleside Youth Centre, 1018 Marine Drive, at 7 p.m.

Lambur was adamant: "The community does not want them there. They want them out. I'm sure you're going to hear that loud and clear on Thursday." He added: "There is no way I should have the right to put up a mercury vapour light in my front yard and have it blast into your living room, and expect you to like it. There has to be some kind of a rule or ordinance that prevents  that."