DEPARTMENT: Development Services
DEPARTMENT HEAD: Michael Shannon, Director
COUNCIL DISTRICTS IMPACTED: Citywide
SUBJECT:
Military Lighting Overlay Districts, Section 35-339.04 Update
SUMMARY:
In 2008, the Military Lighting Overlay District was created to support night training missions and to regulate the installation and use of outdoor lighting within 5 miles of Camp Bullis. In addition, the Bexar County Ambient Lighting Study was completed in 2015 and provided recommendations to protect the land adjacent to Joint Base San Antonio (JBSA) Lackland Air Force Base (AFB) and near Camp Bullis from light pollution and glare that would potentially impact the night training missions. Further, as part of the recently adopted 2016 SA Tomorrow Sustainability Plan strategies were identified to evaluate and update the Dark Sky Ordinance. These combined factors led to the discussion and process to re-evaluate the existing MLOD ordinance and compare it to the Ambient Lighting Study. This process was managed by the Office of Sustainability and Development Services Department.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
There were 4 General Meetings and 5 Task Force meetings from February 2017 thru November 2017. These meetings included stakeholders from Joint Base San Antonio, Chamber of Commerce, San Antonio Sign Association, Real Estate Council, CPS Energy, Sign Association, and AACOG stakeholders not to mention several different City Departments. This Task Force proposed amendments to the existing ordinance for outdoor lighting within five (5) miles of the perimeter of Military Bases.
The Task Force amended the existing Military Lighting Overlay District ordinance to regulate five (5) miles of the perimeter of both bases Camp Bullis and Lackland Base. This ordinance will create two Military Lighting Regions (MLR) around these bases. The Military Lighting Region 1 will be placed within 3 miles of the installation (most restricted lighting). The Military Lighting Region 2 will be placed between 3 and 5 miles of the installation (less restricted lighting). These regions will be regulated by BUG ratings, Lumens, and Correlated Color Temperature.
The proposed changes if approved by City Council will require Re-Zoning cases to implement the updated ordinance around Camp Bullis and a Zoning case to establish the standards around Lackland.
Next steps include:
• Nov. 13th - Planning Commission Briefing (no action taken)
• Nov. 27th - Technical Advisory Committee
• Dec. 5th - Zoning Commission Briefing (no action taken)
• Dec. 13th - Planning Commission Action
• Dec. 19th - Zoning Commission Action
• Jan. 25th - City Council Sub-Committee briefing and action
• Feb. 1st - City Council Action
ALTERNATIVES:
As an alternative, the Technical Advisory Committee may choose not to move forward with approving actions needed to amend the Unified Development Code, Section 35-339.04.
FISCAL IMPACT:
There is no fiscal impact associated with this item.
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends approval of the amendments to City Code Section 35-339.04, Military Lighting Overlay District.