From: K A Duhring To: Toddgopy@aol.com ; colwell@mindspring.com Subject: Re:Legal Section Date: Tuesday, January 19, 1999 2:39 PM Here is a summary of the pertinent legal issues related to beachfront light management in Volusia County. Private Property Rights Property owners along Volusia County beaches have legitimate rights and concerns regarding light management. Humans use artificial light at night for a variety of reasons, including safety (e.g. lighting roads and walkways), security (e.g. preventing crime) and for decorative reasons (e.g. colored lights). Insurance companies are concerned about injuries that might result from a darker outdoor environment. Most lighting ordinances do not cover interior lights that can shine brightly enough through windows and sliding glass doors to illuminate the beach. These lights are usually not regulated because of concerns for privacy invasion. Enforcement of lighting ordinances must take these private property interests into consideration. Most lighting ordinances in Florida concentrate on outdoor lights, they do not require lights to be shut off and allow for the property owner to decide how to accomplish the objectives of the ordinance. Lighting Ordinances Volusia County and local cities have had beachfront lighting ordinances in place for 10 years. Both private lights and public street lights are regulated by these laws. In spite of these ordinances, sea turtle disorientations have continued, including the record year in 1997. The federal government encouraged Volusia County to develop a Beach Lighting Management Plan (BLMP) to evaluate why the ordinances were not effective enough to prevent disorientations. As a result of the findings contained in the BLMP, the County made its ordinance more stricter, easier to enforce and extended the regulated area to include properties west of A1A. The County is also working cooperatively with all of the cities along the beach to improve light management by closing loopholes in the enforcement process and by improving technical assistance and public education. The addition of a light meter to the enforcement process will help provide objective measurements of lights in addition to the current practice of subjective observations by inspectors. Just a few comments about the section as it currently reads: 1. As the student already pointed out at the end, some of this information is repeated elsewhere in the background section. The summary above highlights the most important legal issues that fit into the context of your project. We could discuss the lawsuit in more depth, but its relevance for your project is questionable. 2. We can assume that a darker night sky may encourage more sea turtles to nest, Volusia County will never have the level of sea turtle nesting that currently exists in Canaveral National Seashore due to the extent of the human population and alterations. Finally, make sure you proofread all of your sections carefully. I noted several spelling errors and some mis-used words. It helps if someone other than the original author does the proofreading. I'd be happy to point out the errors I found, but I think you guys can handle it. On Mon, 18 Jan 1999 21:33:55 EST Toddgopy@aol.com writes: >Dear Mrs. Duhring > >I appreciate your help. You have been essential to our project. I >would like >to ask you to look over the legal portion of our project. It is not >completely assembled because the team member incharge of this section >doesn't >speak english very well. >We are having a difficult time discerning what is important and what >is not >because >none of us have the time to investigate the legalities. Please Help > ___________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]