Malibu Lighting Ordinance Heading to City Council

Malibu planning commissioners recommended that the Malibu City Council initiate an amendment to the Zoning Ordinance to establish a lighting ordinance this week.

City staff will now research the ordinance and present its findings at a future council meeting.

Planning Commission Chair John Mazza brought up the idea to introduce a recommendation for a lighting ordinance at the Feb. 4 meeting following a presentation by James Benya, director of the Advanced Lighting Design Program at California Lighting Technology Center at UC Davis.

"Light pollution is a growing problem worldwide," Benya said in the hour-long presentation.

Benya laid out a model lighting ordinance, pointing to Anchorage and Tucson as the most progressive.

"You could look at your community and create different standards for different parts of your community," said Benya, who was one of the authors of the International Dark Sky Association/Illuminating Engineering Society Model Lighting Ordinance.