Minneapolis still trying to find its way on street-lighting plan

After years of debate, the city may reject monthly lighting fees and just charge property owners for the cost when ornamental lights are installed.

By STEVE BRANDT, Star Tribune

Last update: February 26, 2008 - 11:03 PM

After an epic debate, Minneapolis may finally be nearing some decisions on what kinds of street lights the city uses and who pays for them.

But very little may change despite on-again, off-again discussions that date back to 1999.

Not much is going to change soon if the full City Council adopts on Friday the recommendations forwarded by the Transportation and Public Works Committee. That committee thinks the council should junk the idea of adding a street-lighting fee to utility bills.

City employees last year proposed charging residential owners up to $13.50 monthly to install ornamental lights over 30 years and pay to operate them. But there was little enthusiasm for the plan, in which some residents could pay for 30 years before getting their lights.

A more recent staff proposal would charge less than $2 monthly to cover operating costs. The money collected would free $2 million in city funds that would be combined with an assessment on property to pay for new ornamental lighting when streets are reconstructed.

A council committee voted that down last week, although some think the full council vote will be closer.

The committee adopted an overall direction for street lighting last week that leaves many details to be filled in later by engineers.

Lights linked to roadwork

The most notable change would automatically add ornamental lights to a boulevard when a residential street is reconstructed, unless the property owners opt out.

Property owners would be assessed for the entire cost, unless they could pry money from their neighborhood's dwindling revitalization dollars or another source. Lighting assessments have run about $2,000 or so for a typical city lot.

But most city residents wouldn't have to worry about getting nicked for a lighting assessment any time soon at the city's current street rebuilding pace. Reconstruction of city streets has been proceeding so slowly that it will take 200 years or more for all residential streets to be reconstructed, unless the city's finances improve.

Blocks that want lighting sooner could petition for it. The public works staff is pushing for an accelerated petition process that would set firmer deadlines for how quickly the required number of signatures must be obtained.

Blocks that don't install ornamental lighting would continue to rely on taller wood-pole lights spaced farther apart.

Neighbor vs. neighbor issue

The City Council took up the issue of street lighting in part because of intra-neighborhood fights during the flush years of the Neighborhood Revitalization Program. Supporter of low-level acorn or lantern-style lights sometimes clashed before the council or in court with those who opposed assessments.

Committee chairwoman Sandra Colvin Roy took the lead in quashing the lighting fee, saying it hasn't been a priority for her ward. She said she's more open to installing pedestrian lighting downtown or on busier arteries. The committee left undecided whether lighting will automatically be installed in such areas.

The committee's decisions to date leave many details unknown. One is whether future ornamental lighting will be different from current designs, which have been criticized for creating glare that leaves pedestrians able to see less than before they were installed.

Another key issue is the share of property owners that must sign petitions before ornamental lighting is added to or deleted from a street reconstruction project.

Steve Brandt • 612-673-4438