Action Alert: Lighting Ordinance in Chesapeake

The Chesapeake City Council is considering an ordinance on Tuesday, 6/16, to allow the illumination of the 660-foot-tall LS Greenlink tower being built along the Southern Branch of the Elizabeth River, just south of Paradise Creek Park.   We have gotten the Planning Commission to amend the ordinance to require the lights to be turned off between 10 pm and dawn.   But we still need help to get the City to dim the allowed brightness shining into Paradise Creek Park and the river.   

The City Council meeting starts at 6:30 pm; come speak out for the birds.  Persons wishing to speak at the City Council hearing must submit a speaker card before 6:30 pm.  Can't make the meeting? Email council@cityofchesapeake.net with your concerns; reference PLN-TXT-2025-004 External Building Lighting.   See the meeting information and the agenda here. 

Some key talking points:

For wildlife, the best practice would be to not light up this tower.  If the building must be lit, we strongly urge that the ordinance incorporate key safeguards to reduce the number of birds killed at the site, and the wildlife disturbed in neighboring parks and along the river. Two key safeguards we ask to be included in the ordinance are: 

• turning off the lights from 10 pm to dawn daily
• minimize the illumination levels permitted, which should be less than 0.5 foot-candles at the property boundary with parks, conservation lands, wetlands, or residential properties.

Building lights, especially those of tall buildings, are a deadly hazard to migrating birds. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology estimates that hundreds of millions of birds are killed each year in building collisions. Well-lit skyscrapers such as the Greenlink tower pose a severe threat. Chesapeake is along the Atlantic Migratory Flyway. Birds primarily migrate at night in huge flocks. Lights on tall buildings disorient and attract these migrating flocks, often causing them to circle the building endlessly until exhausted. Birds also crash into the structure and are killed. The situation becomes even worse during low cloud or foggy weather conditions.  

The City of Chesapeake Comprehensive Plan, pp. 213-214, recognizes this threat and clearly states that "while lights may be a nuisance for residents, for wildlife it can be more serious, rendering habitat unlivable or confusing animals’ natural patterns. Birds in particular may be susceptible to light pollution as most migratory birds fly at night, and can be disoriented or stressed by lights. Where there are known migratory paths, habitats, and highly natural areas, even more care should be given to lighting choices and ensuring lights are used only when necessary." Policy DES 31 calls for us to "Develop an ordinance directed towards reducing light pollution." 

Additional improvements that building can take include using lighting with a warmer color temperature of 2700K or less, requiring lighting to be downward oriented to not illuminate clouds above the building, and the use of flashing anti-collision lighting.

The Cape Henry Audubon Society, in partnership with Dark Sky Virginia, the Friends of Indian River, and multiple other organizations, is leading the Hampton Roads Birds Safe/Lights Out initiative. This is part of a nationwide campaign now covering over 50 metropolitan areas from Boston to Miami to San Diego.