Ivins Night Sky Initiative pursues Dark Sky Community status

By Mike Scott

A project started by two Ivins residents in January to improve, preserve, and protect the night sky over Ivins and get the city officially designated as a Dark Sky Community has grown quickly. Barely two months later, the Ivins Night Sky Initiative is a Utah nonprofit corporation with a four-person board of directors, 10 volunteers, four technical advisors, and some funding to sponsor community events and selected night-sky-friendly retrofit demonstration projects.

And they are already getting results. At the last Ivins City Council meeting, the council agreed to review the draft outdoor lighting ordinance submitted by the initiative and pursue designation from the International Dark Sky Association, or IDA, as a Dark Sky Community.

“Things are moving really quickly,” said Adam Dalton, the Dark Sky Places Program Manager at IDA. “It is fantastic to see the progress the initiative is making; their passion and organization skills are clearly evident.”

The initiative’s 40-page draft ordinance will now go to the city’s Technical Review Committee before heading to the planning commission and public hearings. The initiative’s technical committee is working on several research reports to help the committee evaluate the proposed ordinance.

The draft not only includes requirements set out by the IDA but also incorporates a number of best-practice additions we discovered while reviewing about a dozen other ordinances passed in the past few years by other communities, mostly in the southwest.

As for community outreach, the initiative recently sponsored a student art contest at Vista School with awards for the best interpretation of the night sky over Ivins. The mayor and city council invited the five winners to its next meeting March 21 to formally honor the students for their vision and interest in the night sky. Their artwork is currently on display at city hall.

“Our new events committee is working on two exciting events for April, and more after that,” said Patty Dupre, a founding director of the initiative. “We will post information about the April events on our website at ivinsnightsky.org next week.”

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