DEPARTMENT: Office of Sustainability
DEPARTMENT HEAD: Douglas Melnick
COUNCIL DISTRICTS IMPACTED: Citywide
SUBJECT:
Briefing on SA Tomorrow Sustainability Plan's Dark Sky Strategy
SUMMARY:
The Office of Sustainability Department will provide a briefing on the implementation of the Dark Sky strategy in the SA Tomorrow Sustainability Plan.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
The SA Tomorrow Sustainability Plan is one of the City of San Antonio's SA Tomorrow three growth-related plans adopted by City Council August 11, 2016. The Sustainability Plan addresses how the City's expected population growth will be balanced with our social, economic, and environmental resources. The Sustainability Plan articulates the City's Sustainability strategy and serves as a roadmap to make our community and municipal operations more sustainable. http://www.sasustainabilityplan.com.
A strategy related to the Dark Sky Ordinance, as stated in the Sustainability Plan is as follows:
GB10 Strategy: Working with a broad stakeholder group, study and consider whether to update San Antonio's Dark Sky Ordinance.
GB10 Description: The current ordinance only applies to areas around military bases. An update to this ordinance, if deemed necessary through a broad stakeholder process, could expand the reach and leverage newer technology to promote energy savings in addition to the other environmental and health benefits associated with dark skies.
The current ordinance adopted December 11, 2008, added Section 35-339.04 "Military Lighting Overlay Districts" to Article III, Division 4 "Overlay Districts" and added Section 35-498 "Violations of Military Light Overlay District Regulations" to Article IV, Division 11 "Enforcement, Violations, and Penalties" The purpose of the ordinance was to establish regulations for outdoor lighting impacting military operations within 5 miles of the perimeter of Camp Bullis/Camp Stanley, Randolph Air Force Base, and Lackland Air Force Base.
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