CRANBERRY TWP — The township's zoning ordinance on lighting, more than 20 years on the books, is getting an overhaul.

“The lighting part of our ordinance has never been adjusted since its inception in 1995. That's when we had our big ordinance change,” said Ron Henshaw, township director of planning and development services. “Things have changed in the world of lighting since then, especially LED stuff.”

As part of the revision, the township is restructuring and rewriting the ordinance to make it more user-friendly and easy to understand for developers. The goal is to simplify the ordinance, but there have also been some additions.

The revised ordinance will require that new streetlights have LED lights to save money and lower maintenance costs, Henshaw said.

Henshaw said people in the industry and some homeowners' associations have said that there is a huge cost savings in switching from traditional light sources to LEDs, sometimes with savings of up to two-thirds on electric bills.

Although LED lights cost more initially, the fixtures last much longer, Henshaw said.

This is important for planned residential developments, where streetlights are required on the roads at certain intervals.

“This, in the end, will help create a sustainable environment for homeowners' associations not to be saddled with huge costs related to paying for streetlights,” Henshaw said.

The LED lights will be required to be set at a yellowish-white color, not the glaringly bright white or blue that LEDs can sometimes have.

Other changes to the ordinance include putting the light source in streetlights near the top of the fixture to reduce sky reflective glare, or that orange glow that you can see in the sky around populated areas.

The township supervisors will hold a public hearing on the revisions at their June 29 meeting.