By Richard Dyer
Twitter: @RHDyer

The costs to private citizens and the city to limit lighting to ensure dark skies and an international designation are to be investigated by Apache Junction staff members.

The City Council recently voted unanimously to direct staff to present their findings with any changes that would need to be made, such as to the Zoning Ordinance, and the cost involved with becoming a part of the International Dark Sky Community. In attendance were Mayor Jeff Serdy and Councilmember Robert Schroeder. Attending by phone were Vice Mayor Chip Wilson and Councilmembers Robin Barker, Gail Evans, Christa Rizzi and Jeff Struble.

Councilmember Schroeder earlier this year suggested to the council that Apache Junction become a dark-skies community. Since then he has been receiving e-mails from local residents in support of the designation.

“I’ve been getting e-mail after e-mail from people interested,” he said at the council’s April 21 meeting.

Several residents of the Gold Canyon area, in unincorporated Pinal County, have expressed support of the city becoming a day-skies community, Mayor Serdy said.

“We got contacted by a leadership group in the Gold Canyon area and they are backing this 100% because what Apache Junction does --- we’re out here on the edge and all of the people with the homes up in the foothills and Gold Canyon and Peralta --- we would be affecting them too,” he said. “By initiating something like this, we’d be protecting the whole area’s views and lifestyle.”

Dark-skies designation

An International Dark Sky Community is a town, city, municipality or other legally organized community that has shown dedication to the preservation of the night sky. It includes implementation and enforcement of a quality outdoor lighting ordinance, dark-sky education and citizen support of dark skies, according to darksky.org.

“In order to be eligible for a designation as a community, it has to be some type of legal organization such as a city or a town,” City Planner Kelsey Schattnik said at the April 21 meeting. “So, since we are seeking designation for the City of Apache Junction, it makes since to go forward with a community designation.”

Six Arizona communities are certified dark sky communities --- Big Park/Village of Oak Creek, Camp Verde, Cottonwood, Flagstaff, Fountain Hills and Sedona, she said.

“We can kind of look at these cities as examples as we move forward in this process,” Ms. Schattnik said.

If approved by the council, the city would first fill out an inquiry, then update the Zoning Code’s outdoor lighting ordinance to meet minimum requirements and designate a point of contact. The city would also need to obtain a letter of nomination and file an application, she said.

Planning staff had sought the council’s direction to proceed with the application process to certify the City of Apache Junction as an International Dark Sky Community, but council members said there were too many questions.

Councilwoman Rizzi asked what would change for the city if it had the designation and who would educate the community.

“In terms of what would change, basically it would be tightening up our outdoor lighting regulations. It’s fairly strict as it is, in terms of complying with dark skies, but there are a few regulations that would need to be changed in order to meet the basic guidelines that all dark-sky communities would have to meet,” Ms. Schattnik said.

“And in terms of eduction, I kind of went through some of the Arizona applications and it seems to vary. There are a lot of committees that kind of control the application process and kind of help the city or whomever go forward and the education can be in the form of going to a school, maybe giving a presentation or something to that effect,” she said.

Vice Mayor Wilson asked what changes need to be done and at what cost to private individuals and the city.

“I don’t have a problem investigating and looking into it and stepping forward, but one of the things I think we need to look at is what these costs are going to be, what we have to do and then make that decision whether or not to put the application in or not,” he said.

“Would it also entail any kind of code enforcement on private property? Just something to think about. These are things we are going to want to know as we dig in,” Councilmember Rizzi said.

Councilmember Barker said she has questions that need to be answered before an application is filed.

“I would prefer to direct staff to research what our responsibilities as far as lights are concerned, costs involved, etc. I would feel far more comfortable about submitting an application if I had those answers,” she said.

Richard Dyer
Managing Editor | East Valley
@RHDyer

rdyer@iniusa.org

Meet Richard
Richard Dyer has worked at Independent Newsmedia Inc. USA since 1987, starting his career in Apache Junction as a copy editor and being promoted over the years to work as the editor of the Mesa Independent, news services editor for the East Valley office in Apache Junction, managing editor for the East Valley office, news services editor for the East Valley office and eventually also for the newspapers at INI’s then-Chandler office, managing editor again and as a news editor covering Apache Junction/Gold Canyon and Queen Creek. He helped start the Florence Independent while the news editor covering Apache Junction and Mesa news. In January 2023, he became associate managing editor for the East Valley newspapers and in August 2023 became managing editor for the East Valley newspapers of Chandler/Tempe, Gilbert, Queen Creek, Florence, Mesa and Apache Junction/Gold Canyon, while also reporting on Mesa and Apache Junction/Gold Canyon.  

Community: Since 2009, he has worked as a volunteer to design The Blue Guitar Magazine, Blue Guitar Jr. magazine and Unstrung magazine, which are projects of The Arizona Consortium for the Arts; and since 2014, has been overseeing the art submissions. 

Education: University of Arizona with a master of arts in journalism and a bachelor of science in agricultural communication. Also continuing education at Mesa Community College in welding in a metal art sculpture class.

Random fact: Saw his first tornado on May 31, 2010, which was classified as an EF-2, as part of a stormchasing tour group.

Hobbies: He is an artist of welded-steel sculptures, selling his artwork at juried and non-juried art shows.