The Beacon Hill Project
Introduction
Many years ago, famous radio show host Arthur Godfrey purchased a very large tract of agricultural property West of Leesburg on the North side of Route 7 and, as is the case with so much of this part of the county, the land was kept in its natural, beautiful state and used mainly for cattle production. It was dark.
Some time after the death of Mr. Godfrey, the estate was sold and all or parts of it were purchased by developers for the purpose of building yet more homes, equestrian and golfing facilities.
The main thrust of housing construction has been recent, and it is of considerable concern that despite much publicity and knowledge concerning the deplorable state of outdoor lighting in Loudoun County that this very 'high-end', prominent and expensive subdivision that could serve as a model for doing lighting in a responsible manner was not planned to achieve this.
Nearly every week I hear from someone ( see Letter ) who is shocked by the situation there. Many of these people have simply driven by on Route 7 and seen the glare from multiple floodlights (many left on day and night) and noted the glare hazard to them as passing motorists. I agree - we use Route 7, too, and find the lights distracting - to say the least.
Imagine the chagrin of a family that has invested more than a million Dollars in a home at Beacon Hill with the expectation of being able to enjoy a quiet 'country' ambience and being faced with one or more neighbors whose outdoor lighting completely destroys any hint of rural dark skies.
In response I thought it might be helpful to create a Web document that deals with this particular subdivision.
Objectives are to gather photos, comments, and create a story that illustrates the evolution of changes that, hopefully, will convert a clearly appalling situation to one that serves as an example of improvements that occur if we all work together.
I took a few preliminary photographs on November 2, 2005, beginning at about 5:30 PM (dusk) and present the results here.
Photo Gallery
The above photo was captured at dusk, before most residents would be home and therefore there are not many house lights or exterior floodlights switched on. The bright lights showing all over the development are the inexplicable post-top lights installed at the entrance to virtually every parcel. As darkness deepens and more lights are switched on this scene becomes much more cluttered with bright lights.
Above was taken near the junction of Beacon Hill Drive and Bold Venture Drive. Note the extreme brightness of the post-top lights - I'd consider the glare hazardous and annoying, and fail to see any utility in having lights here. Light escapes upwards, too, causing sky-glow and making the view of our heavens all the more difficult to appreciate. How much energy is wasted - with resultant air pollution and health hazards to all of us? ( see Trains, Coal and Mercury )Are there house numbers on the gate posts? Can you see them? What if an emergency vehicle was trying to respond to a crisis at this address?
The home nestled among the trees in background appears to be attractively lighted inside and I would think the entire ambience of this scene would be vastly improved if the post-top lights were removed.
Nearby on Bold Venture Drive, this photo shows the result of a lamp having burned out and having been replaced with a non-matching one with a different color temperature and brightness. This makes the scene even more unattractive. The home sports what appears to be an unshielded floodlight (upper right) that must be annoying to any neighbor who can see it.
Above taken on the South side of Beacon Hill Drive. It takes a lot of electrical energy to do this and I wonder how many who see it think it's attractive. You can see by the shadow patterns that quite a bit of up-light misses the building and goes straight up into the atmosphere, adding to the sky-glow that people living nearby are unhappy about. ( see Letter )A lot of coal is burned every hour that this lighting is switched on.