Acceptable Security Lighting

MikeR26 (California)
Posts: 3

Posted:

Hello all,

New here, glad to have found it. I'm a current board member of Sonora Ranch in Northern California and we've got 74 homes on about 6 streets. Currently, I'm the Secretary but have held the President position for a couple years. Right now, we are having issues coming up with acceptable security/motion light guidelines that seem to be appearing more and more on the front of everyone's homes. Many are extremely bright and pointed into the street. They're motion sensored so they're not on all the time. This has caused many neighbors to complain.

Has any other association come up with any guidelines that we can use as a starting point?

Thank you!

Mike R

GenoS (Florida)
Posts: 4,276

Posted:

Mentioning the name of your association is against the posting rules.

GenoS (Florida)
Posts: 4,276

Posted:

More to the point, Mike, welcome anyway. My HOA attempted to address this a couple of years ago. We spent some time considering the problem and came up with a new Rule in the Rules & Regulations. Approved by the Board of Directors and the Homeowners (required under our Bylaws), it says:

"External security lighting must be approved in advance through the “Architectural Change Application” process. Such lights must be activated by motion detection and should be calibrated or adjusted so that they are not triggered by pedestrian or vehicular traffic passing by on the street. Once triggered, the lights must be extinguished within 10 minutes absent any further motion detection."

We spent more time on the Rules committee debating and settling on that language than any board since has spent to enforce it. That's three boards ago now. People put up lights outside on their homes all the time. Some are motion-detector controlled, others are on a timer. Absolutely none have been approved through any Architectural control request process.

So we still have the problem and reluctantly have to learn to live with it. Without a good board, good luck.

JohnC46 (South Carolina)
Posts: 14,265

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By GenoS on 02/02/2021 1:28 PM
More to the point, Mike, welcome anyway. My HOA attempted to address this a couple of years ago. We spent some time considering the problem and came up with a new Rule in the Rules & Regulations. Approved by the Board of Directors and the Homeowners (required under our Bylaws), it says:

"External security lighting must be approved in advance through the “Architectural Change Application” process. Such lights must be activated by motion detection and should be calibrated or adjusted so that they are not triggered by pedestrian or vehicular traffic passing by on the street. Once triggered, the lights must be extinguished within 10 minutes absent any further motion detection."

We spent more time on the Rules committee debating and settling on that language than any board since has spent to enforce it. That's three boards ago now. People put up lights outside on their homes all the time. Some are motion-detector controlled, others are on a timer. Absolutely none have been approved through any Architectural control request process.

So we still have the problem and reluctantly have to learn to live with it. Without a good board, good luck.

Good rule. I might try and add something about not shedding light on to neighboring nor common property.

SheliaH (Indiana)
Posts: 6,964

Posted:

I wonder if some sort of sundown/dawn light could work, where the light would go off automatically - it may burn all night but at least you wouldn't get the constant flash if a cat scampered by. A timer could do the same thing or perhaps the motion detector can be adjusted to where it'll go off if something or someone got within, say 10 feet of the house.

If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it. Marcus Aurelius

ND (PA)
Posts: 792

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By JohnC46 on 02/02/2021 1:39 PM

Posted By GenoS on 02/02/2021 1:28 PM
More to the point, Mike, welcome anyway. My HOA attempted to address this a couple of years ago. We spent some time considering the problem and came up with a new Rule in the Rules & Regulations. Approved by the Board of Directors and the Homeowners (required under our Bylaws), it says:

"External security lighting must be approved in advance through the “Architectural Change Application” process. Such lights must be activated by motion detection and should be calibrated or adjusted so that they are not triggered by pedestrian or vehicular traffic passing by on the street. Once triggered, the lights must be extinguished within 10 minutes absent any further motion detection."

We spent more time on the Rules committee debating and settling on that language than any board since has spent to enforce it. That's three boards ago now. People put up lights outside on their homes all the time. Some are motion-detector controlled, others are on a timer. Absolutely none have been approved through any Architectural control request process.

So we still have the problem and reluctantly have to learn to live with it. Without a good board, good luck.

Good rule. I might try and add something about not shedding light on to neighboring nor common property.

These are both good. However, the concept of not shedding any light on to a neighboring property is likely not feasible since most types of flood lights will probably shed some amount of light outside of the homeowner's property unless significantly shielded or directed in such a manner that it's not even lighting the area that is intended. Proximity of homes also plays a large role.

Suggest investigating the concept of "light trespass" as well. Definitely a concept worth considering, but something hard to measure and mitigate. (Here's one reference . . . https://www.lrc.rpi.edu/programs/nlpip/lightinganswers/lightpollution/lightTrespassMeasured.asp)

This is a tough topic as you don't want to totally prevent a homeowner from doing what they think is necessary for their own safety/security; however, other homeowners also deserve not to be inconvenienced/harmed by the choices of their neighbors.

MikeR26 (California)
Posts: 3

Posted:

My apologies... Noted.

MikeR26 (California)
Posts: 3

Posted:

Good points. Light is tough and subjective. Sounds like the best leg that we've got stand on is exactly what your board opted for and that's that external lighting must be approved by the "Architectural Change Application."

Thank you.