In case homeowners are feeling lazy about taking down the Christmas lights this year, there’s a new motivation — Boulder’s outdoor lighting ordinance, which went into effect Nov. 15.

While enforcement won’t officially begin until November, the ordinance is front and center right now as city officials strive to alert residents of the new rules and bring properties into compliance before penalties come into play.

Strings of lights on porches and fences aren’t the focus or motivation for the new rules, but they do get a mention in the law that was passed in 2003 with a 15-year implementation period. The regulations govern brightness, color and direction of lights.

Guidelines differ by property type, but essentially, bulbs can’t be brighter than 900 lumens, which translates to 60 watts for incandescent bulbs and 15 for LED. They also need to be under 3,000 Kelvins, a measure of where the light falls on the color spectrum. Yellower is better than bluer, said Karl Guiler, senior planner.

Fixtures need to direct light toward the ground or diffuse it. Basically, Guiller said, “we want it so you don’t see the bulb clearly.”

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