Fort Bend County officials are dimming the lights on an ordinance passed in 2004 to protect the George Observatory.
Striving to make the rules more developer-friendly and citing a potential loss in real estate deals, county lawmakers have redrawn lighting zone boundaries and commissioned a study to determine economic impact of the lighting ordinance.
The county's two-year-old law limits the amount of lighting allowed for some Fort Bend commercial developments, a measure that was intended to retain a clear sky around the George Observatory. The observatory is a satellite facility of the Houston Museum of Natural Science and includes giant domed telescopes and other nature-oriented attractions.
While the exact impact has not yet been measured, progress on at least one major development in the county has been hindered by the wordy regulations.
Engineers charged with designing Memorial Hermann Healthcare System's new hospital at the corner of U.S. Highway 59 and the Grand Parkway -- scheduled to open in September -- have gone rounds with county planners over the hospital's parking lot lighting.
"I think we kind of had a fundamental disagreement on the interpretation of the ordinance," says Bill Leatherbury, an engineer with Nashville, Tenn.-based Smith Seckman Reid Inc., a design and consulting firm hired to work on the project.
Leatherbury moved to Houston from Salt Lake City, which also has lighting restrictions for developers. Leatherbury was familiar with lighting requirements but was surprised by the convoluted nature of Fort Bend's ordinance.
Indeed, Fort Bend County Commissioner Andy Meyers, who voted against the original ordinance, believes the lighting law has slowed real estate development in the county located southwest of Houston. During a recent commissioners court meeting, Meyers said the ordinance does more to discourage development in rural Fort Bend County than it does to protect the observatory, which is located in Brazos Bend State Park.
Meyers, who is one of several politicians seeking to fill the vacated congressional seat formerly held by Sugar Land's Tom DeLay, could not be reached for comment.
Flipping the switch
The primary change to the ordinance centers around how it will be administered.
Previously, the county was divided into several zones -- with each zone carrying differing degrees of lighting guidelines for developers. Those lines were based on population, not geographical proximity to the observatory.
The county commission has since amended the law to base the boundaries on geography, which Fort Bend County Commissioner Tom Stavinoha believes is a much more logical approach.
"It didn't make a whole lot of sense," Stavinoha says of the original ordinance.
Meanwhile, other changes could also be in the pipeline.
Stavinoha has been meeting with local economic development officials and observatory representatives to determine if the law might be more effective if just one zone -- encompassing a large circle around the observatory -- were put in place.
Stavinoha is also exploring another potential change to the law that would involve making the allowable "brightness" levels a little higher.
The county commissioner hopes that by simplifying the ordinance, Fort Bend can convince neighboring areas such as Brazoria County to adopt similar requirements.
"If we make it user-friendly and more developer-friendly, hopefully we can get those commissioners over there to maybe enact it," he says.
Fort Bend County engineer Louis Hood, who is charged with making sure developers are compliant with the ordinance and has been working with Leatherbury on the Memorial Hermann project, believes that reexamining the ordinance will make it more conducive to developer compliance.
"We are trying to bring the (required) lighting levels to what would be considered a reasonable level," he says.
Local geophysicist and lighting ordinance proponent Phil Inderwiesen, who helped author the original law, doesn't believe the current rules thwart development. On his Web site, which follows the progress of the ordinance and the lighting pollution movement around the country, Inderwiesen points to the commitment by some local developers to work within the existing confines.
As an example, Inderwiesen lauds Sterling McCall Toyota, which opened a new complex at the southeast corner of Highway 59 and the Grand Parkway that stayed within the perimeters of the ordinance.
Jeff Wiley, president of the Fort Bend Economic Development Council, is aware of the concern among potential developers about the ordinance restrictions -- particularly along the Grand Parkway which falls under the ordinance but doesn't run near the observatory.
While he supports protecting the observatory, Wiley also wants to make sure that quality development still takes place in the county. Without changes, he says, the lighting ordinance could impede that.
"(Developer concern) has come up and been voiced on the county level, and at this point they are taking a hard look at it to make sure that it achieves its goal without unintended consequences," Wiley says.