People can learn to live with a lot: boisterous neighbors, noisy construction, glaring lighting. It might not be until someone else poses the question, “How can you live with that?”, when they ask themselves the same. That, more or less, was the case for Brian Pettet, a resident of Ranch at Roaring Fork, when a friend visiting from the big city last year griped about the lighting emanating just a few miles southeast from Carbondale Mini Storage disturbing their stargazing one evening.
“It was bright enough that I would cast a shadow on my bedroom wall from their lights,” Pettet told The Sopris Sun. “I think we get accustomed to living with things that bother us.”
Pettet’s been in the same home for 20 years, just shy of the 25 years Carbondale Mini Storage has been around, which was built by its current owner, Dale Eubank.
A dark skies advocacy group recommended that Pettet contact the county. After getting in touch with Code Enforcement Officer Gretchen Bell and filing a complaint online, Pettet later learned that the facility’s lighting was, indeed, out of date.
Janet McClaymonds, the bookkeeper at Carbondale Mini Storage, heard from the front-desk associate that Bell had perused the outskirts of the facility one night and left her business card behind. When McClaymonds followed up, she, her husband and Eubank’s wife, Bertha, sat down with Bell, who she said was very helpful.
“We were able to figure out what we needed to do to replace all the lights that were shining outward instead of downward,” said McClaymonds. She clarified that the structure was built before the current regulations were in place.
“They were mostly concerned with the outward facing lights,” McClaymonds continued. “They were willing to work with us and we took care of all the lighting around the perimeter.”
Rather than retrofit the lights to be downward facing, which was initially considered, the mini storage team purchased brand new ones online through e-conolight. McClaymonds didn’t have the exact count, but estimated that about 30 fixtures were replaced.
“While our staff is supportive and empathetic to the dark skies benefit and value to the community and surrounding area, our lighting standards reflect our land use code and what is enforceable,” Bell wrote in a statement to The Sopris Sun. “In this particular case, both the property owner and manager of the business addressed county code concerns cooperatively and in an expedited manner to support the surrounding community. Both were a pleasure to work with, [and] the property is now compliant.”
Pettet happens to be the Public Works director for Pitkin County, so is familiar with its lighting standards. He brought up Brush Creek Park & Ride, where downward-facing, motion-detection, LED lighting was installed, factoring in onlooking neighbors’ points of view. He also hinted that Pitkin County is looking at making adjustments to the historic, globe-like streetlamps in Redstone.
“This is not about me. This is about the effort that Garfield County took on, and ultimately the owners of the mini storage,” Pettet said. “From what the county said, they were hugely cooperative and took care of the problem within a couple of months.”
Because folks who file complaints are kept confidential, McClaymonds didn’t even know who was responsible for initiating the effort. During an interview, Pettet said he planned to stop by and thank the Mini Storage crew.
“When they installed the downlighting … their property virtually disappeared at night,” Pettet concluded. “It’s a difference between night and day.”
Pettet has since noticed other properties likely in violation of the lighting ordinance but doesn’t want to be “that guy,” he said. He suspects that people and businesses likely don’t realize their lighting is not up to code, that is until someone says so. And sometimes all it takes is a little nudge from a friend to make a difference.