From the Asheville Citizen-Times
When City Council passed an ordinance in November 2008 to reduce glare from outdoor security lights, it gave light owners five years to comply.
Now, Duke Energy, owner of the vast majority of the lights, says it needs more time because it has done little or nothing to replace or modify its lights to meet the terms of the ordinance.
The 2008 rules were structured so Progress Energy, which has since become part of Duke, could remove lights that do not meet ordinance standards and replace them with ones that do whenever the lights had to be replaced or customers’ leases of the lights expired.
Neither Progress nor Duke did that, and city and Duke officials are now working out an agreement to bring the thousands of lights, sometimes called dusk-to-dawn or barnyard lights, into compliance.
The rules require the lights now have cutoffs or other features that keep light from shining into the sky and reduce the chances it will shine onto the house next door. The new rules went into effect Monday. …
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