ITHACA, N.Y. — According to www.ithaca.com, The Village of Lansing Board of Trustees held an informal discussion with a carwash owner concerning the LEDs on his site.
Lansing Village Code Enforcement/Zoning Officer Mike Scott raised an issue with the strip of LED lights along the side of the Squeaky Clean Car Wash building, saying that the lights create a glare when they reflect off signs nearby, posing a potential safety concern for drivers, the article continued.
Gary Sloan, owner of the carwash, said that the village raised the matter about five years ago and the code enforcement officer at the time found no issues with the lighting, the article noted.
“There was an interpretation by the code enforcement official at the time that it was not a concern of anybody; that in a history of five years there’s been not one resident complaint—‘Why are you making an issue out of this?’ And so that was the end of it,” Sloan said.
Two years later, a new person took over the code enforcement position, but Sloan said he also had no issues with the lighting, the article noted; this time, Scott notified Sloan about a potential problem with the lighting, surprising him.
“I was a little taken aback by it because we had this back and forth and it became an issue again, and I was told that it was not an issue,” Sloan said.
Mayor Donald Hartill said it’s the LED’s white color that makes the matter more concerning, the article added.
“I think the concern is that those LEDs are very bright, and white LEDs are even brighter,” Hartill said. “And it’s that kind of change in intensity and color temperature that I’m sure [brings] concern.”
Hartill was also surprised to find out that the building had been using LEDs for the last five years, since he was under the impression that they were a new product, the article reported.
“Those LEDs that are on the building are law-approved LED,” Sloan said. “They’re from a lighting company called G&G LED that I started as soon as LEDs started coming out.”
Hartill said it would be best to shield the lights to prevent any glare, the article noted, and Sloan proposed two potential solutions: turning down the intensity of the lights or changing the angle of the lighting.
The board agreed that changing the angle of the lighting would be worth trying, the article stated, and by the end of the discussion, it was agreed that the village’s lighting commission would meet with Scott and Sloan to solve the issue.
Scott said this was not a personal issue and he only raised concerns about the lighting for the community’s sake, the article added.
“It’s always about safety,” Scott said. “We’ve got sign codes to keep people [focused] so their eyes stay on the road, and this was just a part of the safety issue. I would just hate to see someone get hurt due to this.”
Read the original article here.
