To the Residents of Kingsport -

The Kingsport HOA Board has installed new streetlights close to homes bordering the community path. The lights are intrusive to bedrooms, causing harmful disruption of sleep, and interfere with activities in other living areas. The lights were not proposed, or in place, when homeowners purchased their properties for which they paid contractual premiums for unobstructed views of wooded and undeveloped areas. This potentially undermines the value of the affected properties.

The lights were installed without consulting affected owners under the presumption that increased lighting would prevent crimes and vandalism in our community. One of the largest, most scientific studies of outdoor crime and the effect of lighting compared the crime rates before and after the installation of lights. It was found that the installation of lights increased crime rates significantly. Violent crime went up by 32%. Property offenses (breaking and entering, auto theft, etc.) were up 77%. (“Chicago Alley Lighting Project”, Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority, April 2000, accessed at www.icjia.state.il.us).

A local architect stated: “The normal approach to designing site lighting for security is not to simply take a standard light fixture and throwing it in a pole. Lighting professionals consider the location to be secured, and the adjacent properties that may be affected and then configure the light source to provide the necessary security with the least impact on the adjacent properties. The most effective means for controlling light pollution is to use a ‘sharp cutoff’ fixture designed to control the throw of lighting to exactly and only where needed.” It seems likely that the Kingsport HOA Board planned and executed the new streetlight placement without the advice of a lighting professional.

The placement of the lights violates provisions of the KOA governing documents. Specifically, Community Code No. 1, Section 2 “Prohibited Uses and Nuisances,” (aa) states: “Exterior lighting shall not be directed in such a manner as to create an annoyance to neighbors or motorists and must be harmonious to the surroundings.”

We ask you to sign a petition to the Board of Directors (Tony Perotti, Bill Greene, Cheryl Parrella, Murray Zar Afshar, Ginger Deluca, Gene Barbato, Ava Tayma), Senior Management Associate Kirk Bigelow, Professional Community Management and Bill Sachs, agent for the Board directly involved in positioning the street lights) to act now to remove all the new street lights since they are intrusive, harmful, may increase the crime rate, were poorly chosen and positioned, and are contrary to the stipulations of the Kingsport HOA by-laws.