City street lights and light trespass.

[Zeit]

Jurisdiction

California

I wanted to know what legal recourse is there and what kind of lawyer deals with issues of light trespass.

The city has opted to install LED 50+ foot light poles right over our neighbors house which of course beams light directly onto our property and into our house. It also means no light displays for Christmas and Halloween that can been seen. I have talked to safe pedestrian lighting proponents and they said street lights are intended for the street not to be on homes OR sidewalk. The city also due to an accident removed a pedestrian light and replaced it with another of these monstrosities which doesn't in fact light up the side walk but lights up our homes across the street which is considered a "noncutoff light".

We have asked the city to turn the lights down and put a "light shield" in. They put a shield in but the shield did not block the light from our house or property. It instead sent out HUGE streams of light shining out the sides of the shield directly onto our front yard , house and a fenced side yard. The two images I am uploading shows how our property is being lit at night after being shielded incorrectly. The image I am attaching shows a light that is called a "semicutoff" light throw and how light is STILL escaping instead of just lighting the street. We continue to have "upward reflected light" on our house and "light trespass" all the way into our side yard which is over 50 feet into our property (we have a large property).

I let them know this over a year ago and they have done nothing to fix the problem. We are now suffering from increased insomnia we had to employ blackout binds.. so we can't even open the windows freely at night without a light blast into our room. So it is now affecting our overall health and enjoyment. What sort of recourse do we have so we can sleep at night and be able to enjoy our property without being blasted by the SUN at night? And if we do have some sort of recourse what are steps we can take if we do need a lawyer to represent us when we approach the city again as they are NOT taking us seriously or caring. We feel like we are fighting Goliath so any help would be appreciated.

 

[army judge]

You would be fighting Goliath.

First of all, governments are protected by "sovereign" laws.

You'd require their permission to sue the city.

You might be able to get more help from your elected city leaders.

You could organize the citizens on your block, present your grievance at city council meetings, contact the media, contact county and state government.

A lawyer has no magical powers.

You could talk about this with a real estate attorney, or a general practice attorney to gain a better perspective.

Sadly, the easiest solution might be for you to sell and move.

 

[Zeit]

I appreciate the the response. However we have been here since over 40 years and have no intention on moving lol. This is not a rental it a house and a home and frankly we were here first. I do understand that the city has been sued without requiring "their permission" with regards to dangerous conditions with later resulted in death and injury. While this is not the case clearly here, it seems to me there should be city ordinances in place like there are in other cities which require cities to comply to nuisance and right to enjoyment of said property. I have looked into IDA which is the International Dark skies organization which has been pushing for cities to include this in their ordinances.. My hope in contacting this forum is that there is a lawyer here that has had experience with these kind of cases. So far I can find nothing in the city ordinance that exactly fits the bill regarding roadways like there are in other cities.

As far as city counsel they are USELESS. They are only there to collect a check from developers etc. I am VERY active in the community to trust me on this. As far as other residents they are hard to get organized and have had very little time to take off just to fight a city counsel who is less than interested. I will try to speak with a real estate attorney again however, I have done this in the past except most in our city work with the city not against it in lawsuits. Frankly I would just like the city to take us seriously, I know tons of people are annoyed by these lights etc. If there are truly no ordinances in place then we would be willing to organize other neighborhood associations to bring this before the city to have it approved by getting IDA involved. We just wanted to know if there is a simple way to address this before going large ie. fighting to the city to get this included in the city ordinances.

 

[hrforme]

I suggest you run for city council so that your voice can be heard.

 

[adjusterjack]

Or buy yourself your own councilman.

 

[zddoodah]

Why would the city install lights "over" your neighbor's property?

"Light trespass" is an invented term. The relevant area of law is nuisance, and pretty much any attorney who handles civil litigation could handle something like this.

 

[Zeit]

I suggest you run for city council so that your voice can be heard.

Thank for that, believe me I have thought about it but I love my privacy. Frankly these people are EXTREMELY lazy and just want a state check and to move up politically. They screw their neighborhoods after they move out :/ ... most run unopposed if someone does run against them they pull out their full financial weight in advertisements to run them out of dodge.

 

[army judge]

I appreciate the the response. However we have been here since over 40 years and have no intention on moving lol. This is not a rental it a house and a home and frankly we were here first. I do understand that the city has been sued without requiring "their permission" with regards to dangerous conditions with later resulted in death and injury. While this is not the case clearly here, it seems to me there should be city ordinances in place like there are in other cities which require cities to comply to nuisance and right to enjoyment of said property. I have looked into IDA which is the International Dark skies organization which has been pushing for cities to include this in their ordinances.. My hope in contacting this forum is that there is a lawyer here that has had experience with these kind of cases. So far I can find nothing in the city ordinance that exactly fits the bill regarding roadways like there are in other cities.

As far as city counsel they are USELESS. They are only there to collect a check from developers etc. I am VERY active in the community to trust me on this. As far as other residents they are hard to get organized and have had very little time to take off just to fight a city counsel who is less than interested. I will try to speak with a real estate attorney again however, I have done this in the past except most in our city work with the city not against it in lawsuits. Frankly I would just like the city to take us seriously, I know tons of people are annoyed by these lights etc. If there are truly no ordinances in place then we would be willing to organize other neighborhood associations to bring this before the city to have it approved by getting IDA involved. We just wanted to know if there is a simple way to address this before going large ie. fighting to the city to get this included in the city ordinances.

No need to defend your position, or respond to my suggestion, buddy.

Good luck.

 

[Zeit]

Why would the city install lights "over" your neighbor's property?

"Light trespass" is an invented term. The relevant area of law is nuisance, and pretty much any attorney who handles civil litigation could handle something like this.

Nice ! Thanks for that. "Nuisance" I will make a note of that and call up an attorney in civil litigation. So the reason they put a light up over the neighbors house is because it is on a 4 corner street. If I showed you pics you would think it was obscene they could get away with it. It used to be a 4 way stop which is much safer according to pedestrian safety orgs., then some idiot city councilman who thought we lived in the country and therefore needed a huge traffic light put in a traffic pole so big it took up the entire sidewalk. I had to call it in as an non ADA compliant. Then they fixed the corner so wheelchairs and pedestrians could walk on the side walk by extending the rounded curb side walk out 2 more feet instead of fixing the pole. ( it was cheaper I am sure).

Basically they put the huge pole whose base measures almost 2 feet sq. up against the neighbors elevated stone embankment. It was so big the concrete beneath was crumbing under the weight than they had to come out and fixed that. The light throw of this street light because of it's intense height pours over our homes even with a "light shield". Currently the light shield the city could put in, they are refusing to put in because they say they only offer the pole blocking shield not a shield for the sides.