The Preserving the Night: Why Fallsburg's Lighting Laws Matter
Dear Friends and Neighbors
For generations, people have chosen to live in the Town of Fallsburg for reasons that have little to do with shopping centers, traffic, or bright lights. They came for the open spaces, the quiet evenings, the wooded landscapes, and the opportunity to enjoy a rural way of life. Even today, many families continue to move here for those same reasons. In recent years, however, Fallsburg has experienced an unprecedented wave of development. New residential communities, schools, camps, and other high-density projects have changed the landscape in many parts of the Town. While growth is inevitable, many residents have expressed concern that some of these developments are designed with suburban or urban standards that do not fit the rural character of our community. One of the clearest examples is outdoor lighting.
A Community Speaks
In March 2025, residents packed the Hurleyville Performing Arts Centre during a major public hearing on proposed changes to Fallsburg’s zoning code. People spoke passionately about protecting the Town’s rural character while accommodating responsible development. The discussion was not simply about where buildings should be located. It was about preserving the qualities that make Fallsburg unique: its hamlets, forests, open land, scenic roads, peaceful neighborhoods, and dark night skies. The Town ultimately incorporated new language into its Special Permit standards that specifically addresses lighting and its impact on surrounding properties.
Light Can Be a Problem
Fallsburg’s zoning code already contains detailed lighting regulations. Section 310-5.11 requires that outdoor lighting be designed, directed, and shielded so that direct light does not leave the perimeter of a site. It requires lighting to avoid unnecessary or unsafe glare, mandates downward-directed building lighting, requires full-cutoff fixtures for brighter lights, limits pole heights, and requires timers or photocells to reduce lighting during non-operational hours. The revised Special Permit standards reinforce those requirements. They specifically require the Planning Board to consider whether a proposed use will produce disturbing emissions of light that are detrimental to the public health, safety, and general welfare. They further require that exterior lighting be dark-sky compliant and that lighting plans identify fixture locations, heights, designs, and foot candle levels that do not create light pollution at or beyond property lines. These provisions were not included by accident. They reflect an understanding that excessive lighting can negatively affect neighboring properties and fundamentally change the character of a rural community.
Rural versus Urban Lighting
Many residents have noticed a growing problem. Parking lots illuminated throughout the night. Building mounted floodlights shining horizontally instead of downward. Bright white LED fixtures producing intense glare. Lights remaining on continuously, even at properties that sit largely unoccupied for much of the year. This type of lighting may be common in urban or densely developed areas. But Fallsburg is not an urban community. Our Town’s own zoning code repeatedly recognizes its rural character. It acknowledges the proximity of homes to commercial and residential developments and establishes standards intended to prevent excessive glare and light trespass. When lighting spills across neighboring properties, shines into bedroom windows, or creates glare for motorists, it affects more than aesthetics. It affects the daily quality of life of the people who live here year-round.
Existing Laws Must Be Enforced
The answer is not necessarily more legislation. Fallsburg already has lighting standards.
The challenge is ensuring that they are consistently enforced. When complaints are made about excessive lighting, the Town should determine whether the property complies with the standards already contained in the zoning code and, where applicable, with the approved site and lighting plans. If lighting does not comply, corrective action must be required.
Reasonable solutions already exist.
Motion-activated lighting can provide security without unnecessary illumination.
Timers and photocells, already required by the code, can reduce lighting during periods when facilities are not operating. Properly shielded, downward-facing fixtures and warm-color lighting can improve visibility while dramatically reducing glare and light trespass. These measures protect both public safety and the rural character of the community.
Moreover, Code Enforcement officers should periodically be out after dark to verify compliance with town zoning codes.
Respect the Community You Choose
Fallsburg has long welcomed new residents, visitors, businesses, and seasonal communities. Growth, when thoughtfully planned, can benefit everyone. But respect should be mutual. Those who choose to build or spend part of the year in Fallsburg should recognize that they are coming into an established rural community. They should not be creating a new urban one. The Town’s lighting standards exist for a reason. They are intended to protect neighbors, promote safety, preserve dark skies and maintain the peaceful environment that has defined Fallsburg for generations. Residents should not have to accept all-night lighting, unnecessary glare, or light pollution simply because development has increased. The expectation should not be that long-time residents adapt to urban-style lighting practices. Rather, new development should adapt to the community it has chosen to join. Fallsburg’s own zoning code reflects that principle.
Now is the time to ensure that those standards are consistently applied and enforced.
Protecting our night skies is not about resisting progress. It is about remembering why so many of us chose Fallsburg in the first place and ensuring that future generations can experience the same quiet evenings, dark skies, and rural character that have long made this Town feel like home.For generations, people have chosen to live in the Town of Fallsburg for reasons that have little to do with shopping centers, traffic, or bright lights. They came for the open spaces, the quiet evenings, the wooded landscapes, and the opportunity to enjoy a rural way of life. Even today, many families continue to move here for those same reasons. In recent years, however, Fallsburg has experienced an unprecedented wave of development. New residential communities, schools, camps, and other high-density projects have changed the landscape in many parts of the Town. While growth is inevitable, many residents have expressed concern that some of these developments are designed with suburban or urban standards that do not fit the rural character of our community. One of the clearest examples is outdoor lighting.
A Community Speaks
In March 2025, residents packed the Hurleyville Performing Arts Centre during a major public hearing on proposed changes to Fallsburg’s zoning code. People spoke passionately about protecting the Town’s rural character while accommodating responsible development. The discussion was not simply about where buildings should be located. It was about preserving the qualities that make Fallsburg unique: its hamlets, forests, open land, scenic roads, peaceful neighborhoods, and dark night skies. The Town ultimately incorporated new language into its Special Permit standards that specifically addresses lighting and its impact on surrounding properties.
Light Can Be a Problem
Fallsburg’s zoning code already contains detailed lighting regulations.
Section 310-5.11 requires that outdoor lighting be designed, directed, and shielded so that direct light does not leave the perimeter of a site. It requires lighting to avoid unnecessary or unsafe glare, mandates downward-directed building lighting, requires full-cutoff fixtures for brighter lights, limits pole heights, and requires timers or photocells to reduce lighting during non-operational hours. The revised Special Permit standards reinforce those requirements. They specifically require the Planning Board to consider whether a proposed use will produce disturbing emissions of light that are detrimental to the public health, safety, and general welfare. They further require that exterior lighting be dark-sky compliant and that lighting plans identify fixture locations, heights, designs, and foot candle levels that do not create light pollution at or beyond property lines. These provisions were not included by accident. They reflect an understanding that excessive lighting can negatively affect neighboring properties and fundamentally change the character of a rural community.
Rural versus Urban Lighting
Many residents have noticed a growing problem. Parking lots illuminated throughout the night. Building mounted floodlights shining horizontally instead of downward. Bright white LED fixtures producing intense glare. Lights remaining on continuously, even at properties that sit largely unoccupied for much of the year. This type of lighting may be common in urban or densely developed areas. But Fallsburg is not an urban community. Our Town’s own zoning code repeatedly recognizes its rural character. It acknowledges the proximity of homes to commercial and residential developments and establishes standards intended to prevent excessive glare and light trespass. When lighting spills across neighboring properties, shines into bedroom windows, or creates glare for motorists, it affects more than aesthetics. It affects the daily quality of life of the people who live here year-round.
Existing Laws Must Be Enforced
The answer is not necessarily more legislation. Fallsburg already has lighting standards.
The challenge is ensuring that they are consistently enforced. When complaints are made about excessive lighting, the Town should determine whether the property complies with the standards already contained in the zoning code and, where applicable, with the approved site and lighting plans. If lighting does not comply, corrective action must be required.
Reasonable solutions already exist.
Motion-activated lighting can provide security without unnecessary illumination.
Timers and photocells, already required by the code, can reduce lighting during periods when facilities are not operating. Properly shielded, downward-facing fixtures and warm-color lighting can improve visibility while dramatically reducing glare and light trespass. These measures protect both public safety and the rural character of the community.
Moreover, Code Enforcement officers should periodically be out after dark to verify compliance with town zoning codes.
Respect the Community You Choose
Fallsburg has long welcomed new residents, visitors, businesses, and seasonal communities. Growth, when thoughtfully planned, can benefit everyone. But respect should be mutual. Those who choose to build or spend part of the year in Fallsburg should recognize that they are coming into an established rural community. They should not be creating a new urban one. The Town’s lighting standards exist for a reason. They are intended to protect neighbors, promote safety, preserve dark skies and maintain the peaceful environment that has defined Fallsburg for generations. Residents should not have to accept all-night lighting, unnecessary glare, or light pollution simply because development has increased. The expectation should not be that long-time residents adapt to urban-style lighting practices. Rather, new development should adapt to the community it has chosen to join. Fallsburg’s own zoning code reflects that principle.
Now is the time to ensure that those standards are consistently applied and enforced.
Protecting our night skies is not about resisting progress. It is about remembering why so many of us chose Fallsburg in the first place and ensuring that future generations can experience the same quiet evenings, dark skies, and rural character that have long made this Town feel like home.
Fallsburg's Future is a community network of concerned Fallsburg residents established in January 2016. Its Mission is to help guide the urban development of the town of Fallsburg and its five hamlets, to promote its sustainable economic development, protect the fragile beauty of its natural habitats and enhance the opportunities and quality of life for all its residents and visitors. We hope to curb the suburban sprawl that is threatening to overwhelm the town’s physical infrastructure and destroy the natural beauty that the area depends on for its future development. See us on Facebook and our website Fallsburgsfuture.com.