We’ve been making some significant strides in getting Dark Sky Certification for the Town of Jackson and Teton County!
After attending multiple Joint Information Meetings (JIMs) earlier this year and creating a thorough and lengthy draft to implement into the Land Development Regulations (LDRs), we were assigned to work with Principle Planners by the Town of Jackson and Teton County. With their helpful support and feedback, we were able to weed out unnecessary and redundant verbiage to maximize the revision’s effectiveness. This helped to trim down our draft by several pages. One county commissioner even commented that we had everything covered except opening a car door at night.
Next, with the help of some friends and supporters in northern Utah, we were able to meet up with Dr. John Barentine while he was making a visit to that area. Dr. Barentine currently works as the Program Manager for the International Dark Sky Association. He gave us an extensive review of our newly revised LDRs and gave some excellent feedback for more revisions. At the end of the meeting, we had two thumbs up from him, and essentially, the International Dark Sky Association! We’re currently working on the final draft now and will be submitting a formal amendment to the town and county once those are complete. Since public support will be a big help in getting that voted in, be sure to keep up with us on social media and here on the blog and we’ll let you know when that happens.
As if that wasn’t enough, we also recently met with Dr. Bryan Boulanger, a civil engineer working with Yellowstone National Park to minimize their light pollution. He offered some great insight and support to also get Grand Teton National Park certified as well!
To find out why we’re seeking Dark Sky Designations, check out our Save Our Night Skies page here. To learn about why light pollution affects everyone, visit the International Dark Sky Association’s Light Pollution page here.
What About Those New Lights on Broadway?
Our executive director, Samuel Singer, has been doing some digging and found out that the lights were purchased before the current exterior lighting standard was adopted. Rest assured though, we’re doing our best to get them changed, and that’s exactly what may very well happen. There seems to be a lot of openness to changing the lights from the Acorn style to the Shepard’s Hook model, which several of the lights already are. That would drastically cut down on the amount of light pollution, especially glare, increasing the overall safety of the area for pedestrians, motorists, and wildlife.
The City/County is currently having researchers collect data on the north side of Broadway across from the Shell and Exxon gas stations to see if the grading that was done on that side is enough to reduce wildlife casualties from automobiles, or whether additional lighting might be necessary on that side of the road as well.
Hopefully with some education and increased awareness we can make sure that all new outdoor lighting in Jackson meets the highest dark sky standards, which will save the City money, reduce energy consumption, make our community safer and healthier, and preserve the amazing natural resource of dark skies. Wyoming Stargazing isn’t against new outdoor lighting in Jackson. However, we do want to make sure that we get the best lighting for our entire community.
We are making some excellent strides in restoring the night skies over town! Thanks to everyone for your support and help thus far, and be sure to follow us on social media to get the latest on our developments.
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