So What Do I Do About My Light Trespass Problem Now?

The options available to you depend on where you live and who owns the offending light or lights.

The first thing you might want to do is go to the Website of General Code Publishers Corp., which maintains the local laws of many municipalities online. If yours is there, you can search for "lighting" or "glare" to determine if there are any outdoor lighting provisions governing your locality.

At that point, you may want to contact your local elected representatives (town councilperson, state assemblyman/senator, county legislator, mayor's office, etc.). If the offender is a school, contact a school board member.

Basically, contact anyone who looks for your vote!

Tell them about your situation. You might be surprised how many of these people are now aware of the issue, or have fielded similar complaints. Some have even suffered from the problem themselves. In a mail contact, you might want to include a simple brochure about light pollution, such as the SELENE tri-fold flyer.

Ask your representatives to help correct the light trespass problem. Your goal should be to replace a glaring, trespassing light with one that puts the right amount of light only where it is needed. See the International Dark-Sky Association's Good Lighting Fixtures page or the Dark Sky Society's page of good lighting fixtures.

If you live on Long Island, many of the offending security lights that businesses use from dusk to dawn are mounted on telephone poles by LIPA, the Long Island Power Authority. SELENE worked for several years to solve this problem, and it has now reached the point where you can just call LIPA and they will remove the light completely or replace it with a better "full-cutoff" fixture. Many of the improved light fixtures are being put up each week. Perhaps you can contact your utility to get them to follow LIPA's example. (See http://www.lipower.org/commercial/small/light.html for more information on LIPA's program.)

Some have suggested that "common law" covers light trespass. Real Estate Lawyer David A. Kaminsky was quoted in the New York Times 2/16/03:

Under common law... there is a cause of action for what are called "private nuisance light cases," in which the light from an adjoining property is so strong that it disturbs and offends "a person of reasonable sensibilities."

So, he said, [one] should notify the offending tenant and the tenant's landlord in writing of the problem and demand that the nuisance cease immediately. If the problem continues, [you] may have a claim for nuisance against the tenant and the landlord. "It should be noted that the court's standard will be that of a 'reasonable person,' " Mr. Kaminsky said. "The court will not make exceptions for those who are hypersensitive to light."

SELENE is aware of a law review article that discusses such cases: www.nesl.edu/lawrev/vol36/4/Ploetz.pdf While you may want to review this article (the nuisance claims section starts on page 1000,) it is suggested, starting on page 1003, that such claims are not very successful.

There is also a recent tax appeal case where a complainant claimed that light trespass from sports lighting caused a decline in his home value in Missouri.

His claim at least temporarily failed as it was ruled that the homeowner had failed to bring forth evidence that his home value had actually declined in value in a booming market.