Community planning tends to be an odd mix of science and technical know-how with art and creativity. Unfortunately, the art and creativity side can too often be lost under a sea of legalities, zoning administration, and other more mundane, day-to-day tasks.  This is especially evident in the area of planning literature, where the vast majority of articles deal primarily with the technical side of planning.

(including many posted here in the Building Place Notebook!)

We at Building Place are pleased to have the opportunity to make better use of the right side of our brains by occasionally publishing a different sort of “planning literature” than you will find in the Planning and Zoning News or Michigan Planner magazines…

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Ask The Zoning Guru

• A planning commissioner with a burning question about your zoning ordinance?
  
• A zoning board of appeals member wrestling with a difficult decision on a variance petition?
  
• …or are you just looking for a clear answer to your zoning conundrum?
  

You’ve come to the right place. The Zoning Guru is here to help.

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For many living in Michigan, Thursday, August 14, 2003 was the day we truly experienced the “inky blackness” of a night without artificial outdoor lighting – as the Great Northeast Power Blackout of 2003 left parts of the northeastern United States in the dark for a day or more.

The Zoning Guru was one of those people who learned that week how much we rely on artificial light at night.  We also got a brief glimpse of many stars that we no longer see in the night sky due to light pollution from parking lot lighting and other exterior light sources.

Exterior lighting serves a wide variety of purposes, including:

• attracting attention (advertising),
• entertainment,
• aesthetics (such as landscape or architectural lighting),
• safety and security,
• warnings of danger, and
• illuminating our paths.

When overused or poorly shielded, however, such lighting dominates the night sky, blotting out the starts and leaving the characteristically orange glow of light pollution over urban areas.

Can we do anything about light pollution? …absolutely.  Do we need to cut the power again? No, but we do need to make smarter and more efficient decisions with regards to our exterior lighting choices if we want to restore the night sky in our urban and suburban neighborhoods… (more on this and an upcoming free lighting presentation on March 10th below)

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