Westmount may restrict use of outdoor spotlights

Jane Martin of The Boulevard recently told city council that in walks through Westmount she noticed an increased tendency by the owners of homes — particularly new ones — to engage in a "very exaggerated and very invasive" form of illumination, which she said amounted to "light pollution."

Martin, wife of City Councillor Patrick Martin, has raised the issue with the mayor and councillors before.

"I know it's very difficult from what you've told me to control or monitor, but I ask you to perhaps consider some new approach in which maybe there could be a maximum number of lumens that a given household could produce in the evening," she said. "Even if the equipment is in place already, it doesn't have to be used at full force.

"I really notice it creeping in slowly, but there are stretches on the upper streets now where it's daylight at night-time," Martin added. "I really feel for the neighbours across the way and I'm speaking on their behalf as they don't care to come here themselves. But it changes the character of a neighbourhood and also it's very wasteful of energy."

Martin maintained that the exterior lighting seen at many of Westmount's homes is a source of environmental and aesthetic problems that city council should be taking seriously. "I've been watching a new house go up and I'm just waiting for the moment when they start installing the places where they'll put these outside lights," she said.

Martin claimed that the exterior lighting at some homes is directed in such a manner that "it all but blinds you as you walk by. So I just don't know what's going on. It seems to be some kind of trend or something. But I think we need to do something about it.

"Because if I'm not there to report it while they're doing it, it will be a fait accompli, and then apparently there's nothing one can do. So I don't think we should have to be in that kind of situation. We should have some standards or some guidelines for what is acceptable in terms of outside illumination."

Mayor Karin Marks agreed. She acknowledged that rules about the exterior lighting of private residences are actually part of Westmount's architectural guidelines. "The problem is that people don't put in on their (architectural) drawings, so when they submit their drawings it doesn't show that there's any lighting," she said.

"Any lighting you have on your house, like even spotlights and things like that, should not be spilling onto your neighbour's property," added Marks. "That lighting's appropriate for institutional buildings and not for residential buildings … I guess it's a decision that we have to make … to start a whole information and enforcement campaign."