May 22 @7:30PM: Meeting to Discuss Street Lights around WRL

May 6, 2008 by park.

A meeting will be held on May 22 beginning at 7:30PM at Winfrey Point to discuss the installation of street lights around White Rock Lake. Street lights already installed will be powered by a generator for viewing.

Pro: Security at night for people and vehicles.
Con: Light Pollution. Lights will deter from White Rock Lake’s reflective pool effect, natural setting & star gazing.

<more - this was originally posted under comments, but I moved it up for greater ummm visibility>

northrup says:
May 6, 2008 at 4:33 pm | edit

A Brief History:

Some years ago, the White Rock Lake Foundation (WRLF) proposed putting hundreds of streetlights around the lakefront. The WRLF website shows a rendering of the lights along a lakeside trail – during the day. http://www.whiterocklakefoundation.org/lighting.html

Obviously the park requires some lighting - at the entrance to parking lots, etc. The City did not want to pay for the project - neither the lights nor their electric bill. So WRLF took it upon themselves to raise the funds - $1,000,000 worth of streetlights to light up the lakeside - as quoted in the Advocate, February 2005:
http://www.advocatemag.com/uploads/pdf/ED_02_05.pdf?PHPSESSID=4ca1bc9ba447bbbdea7ee86fb05761b6

WRLF was unable to raise private funds for its project. So WRLF got Parks to find money in the spillway repair project and got an earmark in a bond issue. As reported in the Dallas Observer on May 1st (OVER)
http://news.dallasobserver.com/2008-05-01/news/white-rock-lake-neighbors-want-to-know-whose-bright-idea-it-was-to-install-lights/

Hossley Lighting Associates, a lighting vendor, was brought in as a “consultant” by WRLF and Parks http://www.hlalighting.com/

Hossley, WRLF, Parks (Willis Winters), and a DPD patrol officer did the lighting plan. Only Hossley knew anything about lighting - the WRLF are laymen, Willis Winters is an architect, and the DPD officer was a beat cop.

Parks approved the final plan with no input from the neighbors or neighborhoods.

The contractor started putting in light poles in parking lots on W. Lawther Drive - until the neighbors started to complain. Councilman Kadane suspended the project, and a called a meeting for May 22 at 7:30 at Winfrey Point.

The City’s cover story on this boondoggle is the need for “more security”. But from a security standpoint, the need for this much lakeside lighting has never been demonstrated.

Most crime in the park is burglary of motor vehicles (BMV) - during the day - approximately 8 BMVs per year on W. Lawther Drive. Lighting lake front lots won’t prevent daytime BMVs. Over-lighting would just enable burglars to see into parked cars and burglarize them at night.

Lakeside lighting would attract more people to the park after the midnight curfew. So on balance, over-lighting the lakeshore could make crime go up in the park - not down. Security cameras would be a better deterrent - they work day and night.

The real crime here is the amount of lighting proposed around the lake: a $500,000 contract to spoil the lakeside views every night for everyone.

Posted in Community Notice | 2 Comments »