Riverside officials have adopted a report that sheds light on the state of the village’s nighttime lighting and how it contributes to light pollution.
The report was prepared by consultant Ken Walczak, a board member of the DarkSky International organization and a senior manager at Adler Planetarium, after he reviewed Riverside’s lighting at night from the ground and through the use of satellite imaging.
“This is a unique community when it comes to the nighttime environment and what you’ve done to maintain it, but like any environmental issue, you definitely have to keep your eyes open,” Walczak told village trustees at their May 21 meeting.
Walczak found that half of all of Riverside’s light emissions at night comes from a collective 37 properties out of the more than 3,000 parcels of land in the village, and 40% of the village’s light comes from single-family residential properties. While many homes are well-lit, he wrote, some outliers contribute “high levels of landscape lighting” that can drown out starlight.
Municipal buildings account for another 11% of light emissions, Walczak said in the report.
But overall, he said, Riverside is in a great state compared to neighboring communities. In the report, Walczak gave Riverside an average brightness score of 2.5. The lowest neighboring communities were LaGrange Park with 4.2 and Brookfield with 5.1. He said Chicago itself has an average brightness of 27.1, more than 10 times that of Riverside.
He gave officials examples of simple fixes to reduce light pollution, like swapping unshielded wall pack lights, which create outward glare, with shielded ones, which only illuminate what is directly beneath them. The report included suggestions for how Riverside can become well-positioned to earn DarkSky Community status through creating ordinances to enforce low nighttime lighting and educating residents on the importance of keeping the night dark.
“I would really recommend convening community meetings, feedback opportunities facilitated by the community. You don’t want to just post something; you want a lot of agreement on this,” Walczak said. “The main takeaway is that you’re so far on the road to what would be a really amazing accomplishment of being one of the few DarkSky Communities in the world, and I think you’re ready to move on.”
Before the board voted to adopt the report, several officials gave their thanks to Trustee Cristin Evans, who they said played a vital role in pushing Riverside to consider reducing light pollution.
Evans told the Landmark the issue arose as part of her efforts in leading one of the village’s teams for the Cross-Community Climate Collaboration, or C4, initiative.
“The vast majority of Riversiders already use thoughtful lighting, and light pollution directly impacts our local flora and fauna, which is very important to Riversiders, especially migratory birds and pollinators that get disrupted by artificial glare,” she said. “There’s such an emphasis on preserving that environment so that our animals and birds and pollinators can thrive, and adjusting light pollution in the village is a great fit for that.”
Evans was one of several village officials who walked Riverside with Walczak as he inventoried the village’s nighttime lighting. She described the experience as “a huge eye-opener.”
“I thought I had an idea of the lighting issues in the village, but a lot of it was very surprising,” she said. “There are lights that are meant for one thing, and they’re focused on something else. There are lights that are lighting up bushes … There’s a lot of waste.”
Evans emphasized that DarkSky Community status is “not an award or a trophy” but a recognition of the village’s collective efforts to make Riverside a darker place at night.
“Success would rest in the hands of every resident,” she said. “We’ll need strong local partnerships with schools, businesses and private entities. It’s not something the village can take on on its own.”
