PAUMA VALLEY - Casino Pauma has shut off its searchlights following complaints from neighbors and the county, according to tribal Chairman Chris Devers.

County officials wrote a letter Tuesday to the Pauma Band of Mission Indians, which owns the casino, asking them to turn off the searchlights because they pollute the night sky with light, disturb neighbors and disrupt observations at Palomar Observatory.

Devers said in a written statement late Tuesday that the lights were turned off while the tribe takes a second look at its lighting policy.

"We are reviewing our policy in light of concerns from our neighbors that have been brought to our recent attention," Devers wrote.

The county's tribal liaison, Chantal Saipe, who wrote the letter to the tribe, said she had not heard of the tribe's decision but that the news was welcome.

"I had expected that the tribe would have turned off the lights as a result of my letter, and I know that to date we have had very positive relationships with Pauma," Saipe said.

A two decades-old ordinance regulates the amount of light near the county's observatories at Mount Palomar and Mount Laguna. The tribe said in environmental reports before building its casino and a planned expansion that the buildings would minimize outdoor lighting.

Saipe said the county got complaints from neighbors regarding the searchlights two months ago.

Joe Chisholm, the chairman of the Pala-Pauma of Community Sponsor Group, said Tuesday that he has received more than a dozen calls from neighbors about the searchlights.

- Contact staff writer Edward Sifuentes at (760) 740-3511 or esifuentes@nctimes.com.