Editor’s note: This letter is in response to a February 23 letter from Planning Board member Margaret Olson on a proposed Town Meeting warrant article on outdoor lighting.
To the editor:
Article 44 will make every outdoor light in town nonconforming, meaning that if your beautiful Colonial-style porch or pole fixture that projects light up or to the side is damaged, you cannot replace it with another Colonial-style light. Nor will this article halt the red glow of Waltham and Boston that we see to the east at night, nor the glow of Worcester that we see to the west.
How will this be enforced? Will the police come to your door and order you to turn off your outdoor lights? Will we be required to install blackout shades to prevent interior light from leaking into the night sky?
Fossil fuel. Leaf blowers. Now this. Must Lincoln solve all the world’s problems?
Sincerely,
Michael Coppock
214 Aspen Circle
Letters to the editor must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to news@lincolnsquirrrel.com. Letters must be about a Lincoln-specific topic, will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Letters containing personal attacks, errors of fact or other inappropriate material will not be published.
Points well made. The post light issue is a real one. Driveway entry lights visible to approaching drivers are often needed for safety. Not to mention how to achieve adequate lighting for an outdoor patio if 60 watts is the maximum lamp equivalent that is allowable.
I support the concern about excessive ambient lighting that obscures the stars, but don’t think this attempt by the Planning Board really represents an all-out assault on modernity nor on all the world’s problems. But I do think the proposal needs more work on the details, or at least greater public clarity if the details to those who know them are more reassuring.