Smiling JOe
SoWal Expert
I have not followed the lighting ordinance situation at all. I am basing my thought above solely on the one meeting where I heard it being addressed. I may be totally off-base.
The last time I heard it brought up at a BCC meeting was probably a year ago, and they were trying to determine how the lighting ordinance would be enforced, and how to prevent ornery neighbors from just trying to stir up trouble. At night, Code Enforcement doesn't work. They were talking about keeping one officer on-call, and having him respond to lighting complaints. He would have to get out of bed, and drive to SoWal, pull out the light meter, if the light was still turned on, blah, blah, blah. The BCC was suggesting if the person reporting the incident was wrong about the light being too intense, on the second call, by that person, that person filing the complaint would be penalized in the way of a fine. I don't think they liked or agreed with their own thoughts of enforcement, and that may be why it was tabled.
Did anyone ever read that ordinance? I swear it had an exemption in there for lights if you are using them for any specific purpose. That makes it about worthless. CE told me to file a complaint and they would make arrangements to check it out when I asked them how it was going to work.

We would have a light ordinance to protect turtles in Walton County if it wasn't for a certain person in Bay County who is also on "The Beach" committee that has spent 10s of thousands of dollars lobbying against it.