The town of Grand Lake is taking its final steps towards becoming a certified International Dark Sky Place community by submitting its final application to DarkSky International by the end of the summer. Following the submission, the organization will look at the application to decide whether to award the designation or not.

Katie Hearsum, Grand Lake community engagement manager, has been leading the project and is currently preparing the application. Her plan is to submit the application by the end of the summer.

Hearsum updated Grand Lake trustees at the May 12 regular business meeting about the town’s progress towards becoming a Dark Sky community. She explained that she had spent the past winter collecting data required for the application.

Over the winter, Hearsum walked around the town after sunset during new moons, the invisible phase of the moon, to take light meter readings. These readings were done during new moons because skies are darkest during this moon phase.

The town had to collect this data as part of the application and will be expected to continue monitoring night sky quality as a Dark Sky community.

Hearsum told trustees that the final application will include 12 consecutive months of light meter readings.

In addition to collecting these light meter readings, the town had to fulfill other Dark Sky community criteria like adopting a town lighting policy.

In November 2024, Grand Lake trustees passed an ordinance addressing lighting policy and included a lighting management plan outlining specific requirements and restrictions to keep light pollution down. Light pollution is defined as human-made alteration of outdoor light levels from those occurring naturally.

Grand Lake town code already included some lighting regulations, but the new ordinance formally outlines specific residential and commercial lighting requirements.

Much of the lighting management plan follows the philosophy of using nighttime lighting only when needed and only when needed to reduce light pollution. The plan writes that all outdoor lighting must be fully shielded and focused downward to minimize ambient lighting, and that all residential outdoor porch lighting should be turned off at night or placed on a motion sensor.

The plan does make exemptions for situations like decorative holiday lighting or lighting used during nighttime emergency construction.

Most of the town owned lighting fixtures already meet the ordinance requirements, according to Hearsum, but the next step includes enforcing the ordinance on businesses and homes. The plan states that all nonconforming lighting “shall strive to be brought into compliance” within 10 years.

Hearsum said that she expects the town to take on some additional work in enforcing the ordinance.

New public lighting, including streetlights, walkway lights or external building lighting, will only be placed in areas where a “public health hazard exists” that can only be mitigated by artificial light at night, the plan states.

Grand Lake was selected by the Colorado Tourism Office to participate in the Dark Sky Certification mentorship program. Places that receive International Dark Sky Place certification not only gain community and ecological benefits, but also gain a competitive tourism edge.

The town will be soliciting letters of support to be included in the application packet.

The town could receive certification by next summer, but Hearsum is unsure how long it takes for DarkSky International to process applications. If accepted, Grand Lake would become one of the nine Dark Sky communities in Colorado, according to DarkSky.org.