At face value, this blog post may appear to have little relevance to The Heritage Educational Portal, but the theme of preserving natural and cultural heritage is not limited to physical and cultural sites. At least, not by the laws of the United States and the state of Florida, where the Preservation Ordinance applies to… well, everyone. Indeed, your window tint has a lot more to say about the protection of our heritage than you may ever realize. This post will examine the historical background of window tint regulations in the state of Florida, as well as its purpose in maintaining the aesthetic quality of our cultural landscape.
The Florida Highway Patrol requires windshield tint to be clear, with a maximum non-reflective tint above the as-1 line or above the manufacturer’s shade, whichever is higher. Front-side window tint must allow over 28% of light transmitted in or out of the vehicle. The back side window tint cannot observe a maximum of 15% tint darkness. The rear window tint must also observe a maximum of 15% tint darkness. As these numbers evince, the State of Florida has long required its citizens to observe window tint regulations. For example, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) even lists highly specific measurements of window tint regulations on its website. However, the history of window tint laws is little more complicated than this brief summary allows. Up until 1992, window tint and darkness had few restrictions. Indeed, it was not until 1992 that all new cars manufactured for sale on or after July 1, 1991, had to comply with ANSI/SAE standard D-622. A detailed explanation of the standard is available here.
A formal explanation of the technological and scientific purposes of window tint regulations is available in this dofollow link to the above-mentioned informative article. In short, window tint regulations serve three main purposes: 1) as a deterrent to human injury resulting from auto accidents; 2) to protect the integrity of structural and bodily components from damage; and finally, the tint regulations also serve the third purpose of maintaining the aesthetic integrity of buildings and vehicles, especially on a larger, statewide scale. In particular, tint regulations maintain the visual quality of our heritage resources, such as when window tint is installed on a building that is a part of a neighborhood protecting buildings as heritage resources. Another example is when window tint is installed on vehicles, which then become a protected cultural resource, as defined by Section 267.021(3)(c), Florida Statutes. Consider the above-mentioned statement about window tint regulations impeding human injury in the event of an auto accident, which serves as another example of how tint regulations protect the cultural landscapes in our physical environment. These regulations prevent direct human damage by reducing the brightness of the sun coming through the windshield, which otherwise puts drivers, their passengers, and other drivers on the road in danger. Thus, the tint regulations reduce the risk of physical injury, thereby preventing damage to humans, who are vital, and indeed, irreplaceable, heritage resources. In this way, window tint can even be seen as an exercise in historic preservation in the sense that specific tint regulations conserve the aesthetics of our heritage resources… that is to say, keeps the value of your property intact, even when a hurricane strikes. Of course, the tint regulations do much more than just maintain the general aesthetic quality and value of your property. They also serve the purpose of mitigating harm should a hurricane strike your neighborhood, like those that occur throughout Florida at rates higher than the national average.
The reality is that tint regulations serve a much greater purpose than preventing impairment to human injury and mitigating harm during a natural disaster. In keeping with the purposes of the Historic Preservation Ordinance, tint regulations serve an important role in maintaining the visual aesthetic quality of Florida’s neighborhoods, just as the Preservation Ordinance aims to maintain the visual aesthetic quality of our cultural resources. With this in mind, Florida’s tint regulations aim to maintain the aesthetic integrity of its heritage resources, which were actually developed alongside the tint regulations and subsequently observed as a means of preserving the visual quality of these important cultural landscapes. Indeed, with increasing populations, comes increasing density in urban areas characterized by mixed-use development. An increasingly common example is the use of residential towers, commercial buildings and office space within the same neighborhood or development. In order to maintain the visual aesthetic quality of these developments, it is important that tint regulations are maintained at both the individual and collective levels and across all land uses represented in a given mixed-use development. Conversely, maintaining the visual quality of neighborhoods is not only critically important to maintaining the cultural aesthetic integrity when applied to mixed-use developments. Rather, the requirement to maintain aesthetic integrity applies equally to single, stand-alone buildings, as well as individual housing and vehicle units. Indeed, all that is required for window tint regulations to apply is that the tinted window is a part of a vehicle, residential, commercial or institutional building, or any other structure fall under the purview of the Historic Preservation Ordinance.