Wednesday, January 20, 2021

Comprehensive Plans for Two Virginia Localities Now Include Night Sky Conservation

In the past year and a half, the City of Staunton in the central Shenandoah Valley and Rappahannock County in the northern Blue Ridge and Piedmont both included language acknowledging the importance of curbing light pollution in their updated Comprehensive Plans. 


Staunton's Comprehensive Plan 
 includes references to dark skies and community friendly lighting standards. 

Rappahannock's Comprehensive Plan--just adopted on December 7, 2020--notes the value of the county's night skies as a natural resource.

Both documents are searchable using the CTRL+F function.  You can go directly to pages 62 and 86 of Rappahannock's plan.  In Staunton's Goals and Objectives, see pages 1-1, 1-2, and 1-9.