Inner Sydney High School Mod 5 - Facade Lighting

When the LED lighting was installed and tested it cause outrage around the area, not just from the resdiential building across the road.

The lighting technicians were given access to our building at 188 Chalmers Street Surry Hills to conduct testing on the strength of the lighting.

When they dropped the capacity down to 10% the LED strips gave a nice level of lighting which was in tone with the rest of the area. They would provide a welcome addition to the area if they could be used to promote and support event like Mardi Gras, Football Games, Vivid Festival, International Womens Day etc.

I support the submission to use the lighting only if they are kept at 10% of their capacity.

Greg Warrilow

As a homeowner living directly opposite the lighting facade, I really appreciate the opportunity to comment on this proposal. The proposed lighting modifications will have benefits for the school community and I would be willing to support if certain conditions are met/further information is provided for residents. My household already experiences significant disturbance from the existing internal lighting in the school, which switches off and on when the school is vacant during the evenings, as well as noise disturbance from alarms and ongoing construction projects at the site (such as roof upgrades over summer which we received no notification for). Further, when the LED lighting was first switched on at the school (again with no notification to residents), it was highly intrusive - making apartments unliveable due to the intensity of the light spillover into living areas.

I therefore require further conditions met to ensure that the lighting does not unduly impact our quality of life and property value before I can support these modifications. The planner listed as the contact, Lewis Demertzi, has not returned my calls to request clarification on these points.

The conditions required are:
1) Further testing of the 10% lux illumination levels with residents informed in advance when testing will take place. While it's reassuring that the modication documents state lighting will only be used at 10% capacity, residents were not informed when testing at different levels occurred. So we have not been given the opportunity to assess what 10% lux actually looks like from our living spaces, and we were not informed what level was used when lights were originally switched on.

2) Clarification on the actual limits (days, weeks etc.) on lighting use. The documents state lighting will be used up to 10 time a year for school and community events and occasions - what does this mean exactly? How long is an 'event'? Ten evenings a year is reasonable and supportable, but if events included multi-week activities (e.g. Vivid) where the lighting will be in use every evening over several weeks, then 10 events a year is excessive for residents. We would also appreciate a condition that lighting is not used during school holidays. Given one of the main reasons given for the modification is that lighting programming will be a curricular activity for students, there should be no need for this to occur during holidays.

3) That a pre-determined schedule of lighting use be provided to residents directly effected in advance (i.e. at the beginning of the year) with a list of the dates and times lighting will be switched on. And a contact provided for residents should lighting be used outside of the pre-arranged schedule or if illumination levels are turned up beyond 10%.

Objection to the use of external LED lighting fixtures on northern, eastern and western facades of the school building for school and community special occasions and events, for the following reasons:
1. Previous experiences of the LED light switched on, bright changing colour and pulsating displays are discomforting and distracting for residents living right near the school.
2. It’s unacceptable to have such brightly coloured light shining into nearby residents’s bedrooms and living rooms. It’s very intrusive and unbearable. It’s very unfair to expect nearby residents to live under this intrusive condition every time the light shows are on, regardless how often or how long the displays will be.
3. Would the decision makers consider to have these LED light displays, if it’s next to their homes, flashing and shining through all their own home living areas.
4. School doesn’t operate at night, why there is a need for light-show, school should be focusing on education, not advertisement and self promotion. It is a waste of resource and totally unexpected for a school development to build a multicolour flashing light display, as it is not a casino.
5. The high rise school building is already dominating Prince Alfred Park, I can’t see the needs for more shows and displays.

I live opposite Prince Alfred Park. The last time the Inner City High School used their external light system my apartment and all of Prince Alfred Park was lit up, all night. This caused a bright glow to illuminate through out my apartment, all night. This experience was distressful and made sleeping difficult.
I therefore have questions regarding their use again.
1. How often will they be used? (eg every night?)
2. How long a period will they be used for at one time? (eg two hours at a time and then switched off?)
3. At what intensity will they be used? ( can the intensity be subdued / dimmed?)
4. Will they ever strobe? (I suffer Migraine headaches and this would not be healthy for me?)
Can you confirm that my submission has been received.
Thank you for accepting this submission. I hope to hear a response to my questions ASAP.

[name withheld]

I am a resident of the adjacent 310 Chalmers St (Paloma) building.

I object to this project for the following reasons:

- At no time during the planning stage has this lighting modification been presented to the community or included in presentations - until the current modification was put forward. The first the community learned of the LED lights was when they were turned on overnight in October 2020 with no prior warning.

- This instance resulted in 20+ residences adjacent to the Inner Sydney High School being subject to a dense wash of green light through their apartments throughout the night. The light permeated curtains and shades and prevented many residents from sleeping.

- Other instances where the lights have been trialled at lower levels have also created considerable light pollution, impacting the households of elderly citizens and new mothers and their babies.

- I note that on occasions, fluorescent lighting in the school's fire stairs or vestibules is left on overnight. These alone cause significant light pollution, at times causing our apartment to be brightly lit, despite curtains being closed. This has a real impact on our sleep and mental health when it occurs as there is no way to block this light completely.

Furthermore, I am concerned by the use of the term "community special occasions and events". As a school spanning six grades (7-12), it is foreseeable that even if each grade had 3 special events per year, we would be looking at 18 usages of the lights per year - which is a significant amount.