Dark Skies & Nighttime Lighting

Federal rules require tall structures to warn off aircraft. Under the FAA's obstruction-marking standard, any structure taller than 200 feet should be marked and lighted — and SDG&E's lattice towers run 180 to 200 feet, with the company saying some may exceed 200 feet. The taller towers, and any near the hospital helipad, would therefore carry aviation obstruction lighting. ^{[1] [2]}

The standard nighttime system is a flashing red beacon paired with steady-burning red marker lights, designed to be seen by pilots from miles away. The energized wires themselves can also carry steady red marker lights where they cross sensitive areas. The result is a continuous industrial light source — over homes, over Temecula Creek, and over the valley's dark evening skies. ^[1]

This is not a region that shrugs at light pollution. Riverside County's Ordinance 655 — the Mount Palomar light-pollution ordinance — restricts outdoor lighting across a 45-mile zone around Palomar Observatory to protect astronomical research, and Temecula sits squarely inside it. Decorative and color lighting must be switched off between 11 p.m. and sunrise. ^[3]

Temecula writes the same commitment into its own code: exterior lighting must be fully shielded, aimed downward, warm-colored, and compliant with Ordinance 655. Residents and businesses already dim and shield their lights for the observatory. ^[4]

That is the contradiction. A homeowner can be cited for an unshielded light after 11 p.m., while a 500 kV tower would blink bright red over the same neighborhood all night — because aviation lights are required by the FAA and sit outside the county's control. The county cannot switch them off. Farther east, the same corridor runs through Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, a designated International Dark Sky Park, where industrial lighting cuts against the very designation the park is built on. ^{[3] [5]}

The beacons do not have to blink all night. The FAA recognizes Aircraft Detection Lighting Systems: radar keeps the obstruction lights dark until an aircraft actually approaches, then turns them on only for the duration of the pass. The lights stay off the vast majority of the time. The technology is already in wide use on wind farms and has been assessed by the FAA on transmission towers. ^[6]

California's environmental review must disclose a project's new sources of nighttime light and glare and adopt feasible measures to reduce them. The public can demand that the review identify exactly which towers would be lit, require red-only lighting paired with a detection system so the beacons stay dark when no aircraft is near, and hold any ground lighting at substations and access roads to Temecula's own dark-sky standards. The point is not that this lighting can be banned — it can't — but that it can be disclosed honestly and minimized. ^{[1] [4]}