Shame on the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners for passing a new outdoor lighting ordinance on Jan. 17 that will benefit an elite handful of casual urban star-gazers, while infringing on the private-property rights of everyone else.

The measure, which applies only to the county’s unincorporated areas, is billed as limiting light pollution, improving energy efficiency and reducing carbon emissions. 

Alarmingly, the new law was not prompted by citizen complaints about light pollution, but by the lobbying efforts of the Astronomy Club of Asheville and the Sierra Club — dark-sky extremists. We especially feel sorry for rural county residents who need bright lighting at night for safety, agricultural or other purposes.

During a hearing on the ordinance plan, Kathy Rhodarmer, a Candler resident, showed courage to state forthrightly — in a room packed with supporters of the measure — that “I’ve never seen so many people who want to tell others what to do.”

Carol Peterson, the lone commissioner to vote against the ordinance, noted that it was being amended at the last moment without being properly vetted. While she said “lighting standards are good,” Peterson rightly noted, “... I feel like we’ve got to think about the folks who are not up to speed with what we’re doing tonight, and those are the people I’m trying to make a stand for.”

In public comment later, Mike Plemmons, executive director of the Council of Independent Business Owners, complained that a copy of the amended ordinance should have been provided to CIBO and others. 

“Apparently, there were a lot of groups already meeting with you,” Plemmons asserted. “We (CIBO) were not one of them, and we don’t like that ... I do think if the average person in Buncombe County living in the rural areas had known about these, they probably would have had a little different public here.”

Plemmons is right — and a small-but-vocal elite has won this round.