It is not just this and you just said it. Everything is legislated or almost anyway. Once you begin making rules you have to enforce them. What are you going to do? Slap fines on people who don't comply?
Convince people to do something of their own free will and they will do so cheerfully. Point out to businesses that not only will they save money but it will do wonders for community relations and watch them rush to be the first. Try to force it on them and watch them sneak around the law and then instead of a tax cut there will be a tax increase to fund Bureau of Light and Darkness. And you have L&D enforcement officers running around with light meters and hauling off people who don't respect the dark and protests with people singing "This little light of mine / I’m going to let it shine..."
Okay, so I got carried away but the point is valid.
And, if you think that it would never get abused so badly, allow me to direct your attention to the anti-smoking nonsense. Whoever would have thought that a parent could lose custody of their child because they smoked? Or that a business would not be allowed to have a smoking section? Or that in some places it would be illegal to have a smoke on your porch?
I just ask that you please consider the can of worms before you open it. Afterwords it will be too late. Undoing a law is not so easy as getting one passed.
a.cricket
I would shorten it to BOD. Light encroachment is already in many land use zoning codes around the country. Code enforcement relies on complaints from the private sector to be filed before they send the code enforcement officer out and begin writing nasty-grams. We don't actually need more regulations. The State or Municipality can and do write lighting specs into their own specification code for public construction purchases [schools, streets, ballparks] made by State or Municipal agencies and leave the private sector alone. We can still file on McDonalds or K-Mart parking lot lights in either case. That shouldn't be a problem for little shining lights, should it?