City to Draft Ordinance to Address Residential Intrusion

Blinding lights streaming in residential windows has become a nuisance for several San Angelo citizens, and after being given the go ahead from City Council Tuesday, the Housing Authority intends to solve the problem.

San Angelo Director of Community Development Bob Salas described the issue as a residential problem that is currently not governed by any code. Without a standard in place, Salas said, there is nothing to enforce and residents are left with light intrusion.

“Unfortunately, our code officers have no authority to enforce compliance since the city doesn’t have an ordinance covering light intrusion,” he said. “We’ve received several complaints over the past several years. The only solution we can offer is to ask the offending party to voluntarily comply.”

Salas said that he is aware of several instances in which the offender refused to comply, thus leaving the complainant to deal with the excess light. Should the City agree to begin work on drafting an ordinance addressing the issue, they will need to consider several aspects, Salas said. These include clearly defining what constitutes a nuisance; deciding where to enforce the ordinance; adding exemptions in order to not violate safety concerns; and setting up standards for solutions.

The ordinance would be the first of its kind for San Angelo, however there are several other Texas cities with ordinances in place that may be help guide in the drafting process.

Councilman Rodney Fleming currently has three residents in his district going through light intrusion troubles and is in favor of the idea.

“I do want to pursue the ordinance,” he said. “I’m always leaning toward the easy way to do it instead of the complicated way to do it. I think this would be a good thing to help solve some arguments in the future because we have some people out there that are not doing the good neighbor deed.”

The proposal also garnered support from Councilman Don Vardeman, who said he’d like to see more effort put into ironing out the front end and thus preventing the issues from arising in the first place.

“Do we not have something in the building code,” Vardeman asked, “I know we have minimum standards as afar as candlepower and light output for different occupancies, but do we not have a maximum in there in the residential code or the building code?

“I would…rather have it in the front end than the back end. I think some of these new businesses that are coming in, I think that if we could have regulated them on the front end then we wouldn’t have to be fighting this now quite as much. Maybe we need to look at it not only from this standpoint, but also from a building official’s standpoint and what we can do when they’re first coming in,” he said.

Currently, there is no maximum for light output or candlepower for either residential or commercial structures, however Vardeman’s idea was met positively, as Council and Salas agreed it should be considered.

All also agreed that the ordinance “should have some teeth in it” to aid in enforcement. Once the ordinance is drafted, those teeth will come in the form of a fine for noncompliance, Salas said.

The ordinance’s protections are to be strictly residential. “If it’s commercial, we wouldn’t address that,” Salas said. “Regardless of where the source is, it doesn’t matter. If it’s affecting a residential unit, it’s a unit. It doesn’t matter where it’s coming from.”

Council took to vote and agreed unanimously to move forward and generate ideas for the ordinance. Updates will follow at future Council meetings.