- April 18, 2024
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Part of the town’s $50 million project to bury all of its overhead wires includes installing new streetlights.
But what kind of streetlights will the town install? How many will the town need to install and where will it put them?
Those are a few of the questions that Longboat Key has been wrestling with over the past few months as it decides how to spend the $6.3 million it has earmarked for roadway lighting as part of its project to put all the town’s overhead wires underground.
The town now has 352 streetlights across the length of the island, 162 of which are on Gulf of Mexico Drive, according to town records. Those lights are spaced anywhere from 300 to 700 feet apart on Gulf of Mexico Drive and 300 to 500 feet apart in the neighborhoods.
How many road lamps the town will need as it considers adding new streetlights is unclear, Public Works Director Isaac Brownman said. The town is waiting for a lighting justification study from the Florida Department of Transportation, a report that will stipulate how many lights are needed and where the lights will be put on Gulf of Mexico Drive, Brownman said.
The issue FDOT and the town are negotiating has to do with how much light is on the roadway. FDOT has standards for all the roads it manages across the state, guidelines that would require more than 400 streetlights on Gulf of Mexico Drive if followed.
Residents and town staff have objected, contending lamps every 100 feet or so would be too bright. This objection is the nexus of negotiations between FDOT and Longboat Key.
The plan for the neighborhoods is to replace each light with a new one, although the exact design of the light poles, which will come once the town enters a private-public partnership to install them, hasn’t been determined, Brownman said.
The objective of installing new streetlights, however, is clear, according to town records:
The town has established three options as possible avenues for replacing the island’s streetlights: cobra head lights, modern flat fixture style and traditional decorative lamps.
The modern flat fixture style of lighting is the cheaper option, costing the town $8,065 per pole. The decorative lamp option would cost the town $10,050, according to town records.
The Town Commission, at its January workshop meeting, suggested staff pursue the modern flat fixture for all of the island’s streetlights.
But each stakeholder — including the town, its residents and the Florida Department of Transportation — has its own ideas of what would be best.
The town wants to provide a network for new 5G cellular technology built into the light poles. Residents want something more aesthetically pleasing than what they have now. FDOT wants enough light to meet its standards for all its highways across the state.
For Pete Rowan, organizer of Keep Longboat Special and a Longbeach Village resident, the town’s objectives don’t quite match what voters were promised when they elected to support the project to put all overhead wires underground.
“People didn’t vote for safety and reliability, they voted for aesthetics,” Rowan said.
The group conducted a survey of its more than 1,000 members in an effort to understand what residents want out of their streetlights.
Out of 159 respondents to its survey, which asked residents what kind of light pole they preferred, 125 responded saying they’d prefer traditional decorative lamps in the neighborhoods.
Brownman said the Public Works Department is “sensitive to the historic ambiance of the [Longbeach] Village,” but won’t be able to make any decision about what kind of light will be put where until the town contracts with a contractor to do the work of installing the streetlights.
“We’re holding off on saying anything until we get the right people on board,” Brownman said.
