Premises Liability Law

• No federal law or nationally recognized standard exists that specifies illumination minimums for public parking lots. Many municipalities have no laws governing lighting of parking structures. Others, such as the La Verne, Calif., municipal code, require "a minimum of .25 foot-candles on the parking surface," but also state that "higher minimum standards may be required in response to unique circumstances," without stating what those circumstances are. A foot-candle equals the light produced by one candle on 1 square foot of surface at a 1-foot distance.
  
  

How Much Lighting Is Enough?

• Providing the minimum amount of lighting required by municipal code reduces liability, but doesn't eliminate it. Ralph Witherspoon, a security consultant, recommends three to six foot-candles of illumination throughout the lot, with up to five to 10 times that much at exit points.
  
  

Enactment of Dark-Sky Ordinances

• Increasingly, U.S. municipalities--such as Tucson and Flagstaff in Arizona--are enacting "dark sky" ordinances recommended by the International Dark-Sky Association. Both New Hampshire and New Mexico have statewide ordinances. Dark-sky ordinances purport to "curtail and reverse any degradation of the nighttime visual environment and the night sky" by limiting outdoor lighting, according to the International Dark-Sky Association.
  
  

Dark Sky and Other Code Restrictions

• While not in direct conflict with codes requiring foot-candle minimums in parking lots, dark-sky code restrictions make the provision of recommended foot-candle minimums difficult. The authors of the codes also reveal an underlying skepticism about the whole concept of lighting for safety. The International Dark-Sky Association states that "studies show no relation [between light-levels and safety] or even that safety and security are decreased [by reducing security illumination]."
  
  

The Collision Between Safe Lighting and Legal Lighting

• The conflicts between advocates of safe lighting from a security standpoint and proponents of dark-sky ordinances tend to grow as more communities enact dark-skuy ordinances. Some police have become increasingly alarmed at what they see as a dangerous trend. "We're against it totally...If there's a reduction in the amount of light...that's a safety issue," said police Captain Milton Matsouka in the Maui News on July 18, 2006.