E. Sign Illumination
Sign illumination is necessary to ensure businesses can be found when open after dark. However, as a Dark Sky Community, Sedona seeks to limit outdoor lighting to only what is necessary and to minimize light pollution. The following illumination standards seek to achieve a balance between providing sufficient sign lighting while ensuring maintenance of the dark skies.
(1) Illumination is only permitted on permanent signs in commercial districts. Temporary signs and signs in residential districts cannot be illuminated, unless approved as a part of a Master Sign Plan.
(2) The intensity of sign lighting shall not exceed that necessary to illuminate and make legible a sign from the adjacent travel way or closest right-of-way; and the illumination of a sign shall not be obtrusive to the surrounding area as determined by the Director.
(3) Signs should only be illuminated if the existing ambient light (such as from street lights or from interior lighting from a building) is not sufficient to light the sign.
(4) When illumination is used, the light shall be contained to the sign and no light shall spill over.
(5) Illumination for signs shall conform to all provisions of Section 5.8, Exterior Lighting. Sign lighting shall be treated as Class 1 lighting and shall conform to the lamp, shielding, and time restrictions and shall count towards the lumen cap for the property.
(6) Sign illumination shall be limited to a maximum of two different colors.
(7) External Illumination
a. Fixtures chosen for external illumination shall be architecturally compatible with the building to which they are attached.
b. Externally lit signs shall be illuminated only with steady, stationary, shielded light sources directed solely onto the sign without causing glare. (See Figure 6-7.)
Figure 6-7: Externally Lit Building Sign
c. External lighting fixtures shall be fully shielded and directed down.
d. Ground mounted uplighting may be used when it can be demonstrated that no light will spill off of the sign face. (See Figure 6-8.)
Figure 6-8: Ground Mounted Uplighting of Monument Sign
(8) Internal Illumination
Internally illuminated signs are prohibited except as permitted below:
a. Individual halo-lit letters with solid opaque faces that do not permit any light to come through the face and that are silhouetted against a softly illuminated wall. (See Figure 6-9.)
Figure 6-9: Individual Halo-Lit Letters with Opaque Face
b. Metal-faced box signs with cut-out letters and soft-glow lighting sources. (See Figure 6-10.)
Figure 6-10: Opaque Face with Soft Glow Letters
(9) Prohibited Illumination Methods
a. Light bulbs or lighting tubes used for illuminating a sign shall not be visible from adjacent public rights-of-way or residential properties.
b. The fixtures used to illuminate signs shall not be directed toward nearby residential properties.
c. Other than one sign per business, with a maximum of two square feet, digital or electronically lit messages of any kind, or signs having the same effect, are prohibited.
d. Blinking, rotating, flashing, hanging, or reflecting lights are prohibited.
e. Visible raceways and transformers for individual letters are prohibited.