Lighting Standards

You notice the absence of light.  You notice darkness.  And darkness creates fear and uncertainty around a building and also encourages theft and illicit behaviour.

I remember in a prior life owning a building on Jarvis Street in Toronto.  There was an alleyway that was dark at night and the darkness in that location formed a perfect place for prostitution and drug use.  We tackled the problem by adding flood lights with cages around them.  All of a sudden night was as bright as day and the night action ended.

This summer at my family's Muskoka building, one of our tenant's landscape trailers was stolen at night.   According to the O.P.P. there were a number of similar thefts in the area.  We have tried to tackle the problem by ensuring that all of our exterior lights are working and are bright. Those exterior lights include lights above doorways, flood lights mounted on the building, motion sensors, and bright light standards in the parking lot.

We also have security routines at night.  Each night we conduct a security patrol to ensure that all doors are locked and all lights are working.  We also have a night watchman that lives on site along with video monitoring at each of the doors.  One of our neighbours who plans to grow marijuana pursuant to a federal license intends to have 24 hour video monitoring to ensure his building's security.

By ensuring that your building is brightly lit at night and by implementing security measures, you can discourage most forms of illicit activities.