Research snapshot · Environmental · 31 August 2026

Dark sky lighting across the country: 60 towns on the record, the pace easing

This page is a snapshot, cut 31 August 2026, of a topic that moves. Below is the shape of the movement, read from the towns' own meeting records, and the way to get a view of it that stays current.

Keep as-is.Our definition of the class, 29 August 2026.

Snapshot taken 31 August 2026, based on 74 dated municipal records flagged as dark sky lighting, spanning 60 municipalities across 18 states. The topic moves; a later cut supersedes this page.

ScopeAcross the countryNew HampshireMaineMassachusetts

What this page is for one topic at state or national scope, told as a story: how it arrived, the shape of its movement, a dated snapshot of a moving record, and the door to a view of it that stays current. If it does not, write to us; that is what changes the next edition.

The story so far

The record starts in New Hampshire, 19 June 2020. Since then 60 municipalities in 18 states have put the topic on a meeting record, at very different speeds: New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts hold 52% of the dated events between them.

The last 90 days put 7 meetings on the record, well down from 24 in the 90 days before.

It runs through the rooms where budgets and ordinances are made: Planning Board, City Council and Open Space Committee.

The shape of the movement

Dated meetings on the record at this scope, quarter by quarter, and the same 90-day count as a rolling line, whose right-hand point is that number. Counts of documents, never a reading of what they decided.
QuarterMeetingsTownsStates
Sep 2025 to Nov 2025222
Dec 2025 to Feb 202627239
Mar 2026 to May 2026251711
Jun 2026 to Aug 2026 (current)765

a rolling 90-day total, so the right-hand point is that same 90-day count. The busiest stretch was Dec 2025 to Feb 2026, with 27 meetings.

Where it is moving18 states

The same topic at different speeds in different states. A state's name opens its own page where one exists.
StateTowns on the recordMeetings, 90 daysLatest
New Hampshire1322026-07-21
Maine132 ▬ +0.0%2026-06-25
Massachusetts602026-05-28
California lighter read302026-03-18
Connecticut lighter read302026-05-18
Utah lighter read31 new on the record2026-06-30
Vermont lighter read31 ▬ +0.0%2026-06-25
Arizona lighter read30
Texas lighter read202025-01-28
Colorado lighter read21 new on the record2026-08-13
Pennsylvania lighter read102026-04-16
Michigan lighter read102026-05-13
Missouri lighter read102026-02-17
Alabama lighter read102026-03-24
Georgia lighter read102026-03-19

And 3 more states on the record, in an account view.

From the record

The most recent documents behind this page, one per town. Each link opens the town's own file.

13 August 2026 · Brighton, Colorado

the agenda, on the town's own site Agenda — 2026-08-13

21 July 2026 · Strafford, New Hampshire

the document, on the town's own site SB20260707

30 June 2026 · Eagle Mountain, Utah

a report, on the town's own site Parks, Trails and Open Space Master Plan and Impact Fee Facilities Plan (IFFP) (2026)

25 June 2026 · Rockport, Maine Planning Board

the document, on the town's own site MCHT letter to Rockport Planning Board re 3 Cross St. 06.25.26

Companies on this record214 companies, 67 documents

Named in the same documents that carry this topic, read from the record itself: the firms designing, building and advising the work, each with where the record places them:
NHDESBethlehem, North Hampton, Wolfeboro
AECOMChelmsford, Lansdale, Sanbornton
AmazonLansdale, Sanbornton
RotaryCastroville, Seabrook
CARI/EcoAtlasLos Altos Hills
Advanced Drainage SystemsLansdale, Sanbornton
AES CorporationLansdale, Sanbornton
AirgasLansdale, Sanbornton
Algonquin Power & UtilitiesLansdale, Sanbornton
American Water WorksLansdale, Sanbornton
ArcadisLansdale, Sanbornton
AT&TLansdale, Sanbornton
darksky.orgBangor, Yarmouth
CARILos Altos Hills
DavidLansdale
EcoAtlasLos Altos Hills
Franklin-Verra & Associates, Inc.Candia
London Bridge South, Inc.Candia
MattLansdale
MVISDCastroville
Parks & RecLansdale
ScoutsSeabrook
Shawn E. Reed Family Revocable TrustCandia
3M CompanySanbornton
AC SCHULTES, INC.Lansdale
Allen’sOrland
Alta Planning +DesignEagle Mountain
ALTECLansdale
American Steeple & TowerSalem
Andrew & Jessica GelinasMilton

And 184 more companies.

The documents naming each, and the threads they sit in, are the account view. If one of these is you, those are your projects on the record. Ask and we will show you every one, and the towns around them, as they move.

A snapshot of a moving record

Everything above is frozen at 31 August 2026; the topic is not. 12 more events on this topic carry no usable date and are counted, never dated. The counts follow where we read most: a town or a state absent here was not read at depth, and absence is not evidence the topic is absent there. A lighter-read state is not a ceiling; where you care about a region, pointing the system there is the first thing an account changes. How coverage is built, and its known limits: municipalalpha.com/methodology.

How we can tell you about it ongoing

We track this topic continuously; this page is one cut of it, taken 31 August 2026. An account turns the snapshot into a working view: every town and every document behind these counts, the thread on each matter as it develops, word of new meetings as they land on the record, your own states and topics side by side, and the data itself when you want it in a table. The towns above are the taste; what each is actually deciding, funding or stalling is the read an account carries.

Each state's name above opens its own page. Counts and dates are computed from the documents on the record; the topic and its definition are ours. This page carries no subscriber content.

Dark sky lighting, across the country

from the towns' own meeting records

Scope

Across the country

Area

Environmental

every topic in this area

Towns on the record

60

with a dated document on this topic

States on the record

18

counted from the record

Earliest

19 June 2020

the documents' dates

Meetings, last 90 days

7 against 24 before

dated documents

Snapshot cut

31 August 2026

this page's date

A view that stays current

ask for yours