Dixmont, ME Outdoor Lighting: Dark Sky Rules (2026)

Section IX of the Dixmont Mining Ordinance, adopted at a special town meeting on September 26, 2023, sets the performance standards for every permitted Mining Operation, and subsection J is titled Exterior Lighting. It has three parts. First, all exterior lighting must be designed to ensure safe movement of people and vehicles and to minimize adverse impact on neighboring properties and public ways. Second, lighting must be arranged to minimize glare and reflection on adjacent properties and the traveling public. Third, all lighting shall be dark sky compliant. The ordinance prints no definition of the term "dark sky compliant," so the Planning Board applies it when it reviews the application.

The application list in Section VIII asks for the size, location, intensity, and direction of all outdoor lighting, and repeats that all lighting shall be dark sky compliant. Subsection O of Section IX gives the Planning Board authority to modify or apply additional standards and impose conditions not otherwise specified as necessary to minimize adverse effects on public health and safety and on surrounding land uses. A permit runs for a period not to exceed three (3) years, and the ordinance covers excavation or extraction of sand, gravel, crushed stone, rock or borrow that exceeds five hundred (500) cubic yards. Regular operating hours are 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily, none on Sunday.

This is a mining rule only. Dixmont has no general zoning ordinance. A separate instrument, the Site Plan Review Ordinance (Section 9.23), requires fixtures on reviewed nonresidential and multifamily projects to be shielded or hooded so they do not unnecessarily light the night sky, and it sets a 0.5 foot-candle limit at the lot line.