09/25/2006 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Minutes of the Regular Meeting of Council September 25, 2006 Page 16 Mayor Rinker added that things to look at is what economies can we achieve by doing it all at once. The idea of phasing is a bit of a misnomer but if Council were to choose, you could do it at the logical breaking point of .Wilson Mills. Some of the discussion is going to be buying material, staging the work, what are the economies we can achieve by doing those things and essentially doing it in one fell swoop as opposed to breaking it out. Those are the kinds of discussions that you want to have. They will get back to us based upon the meeting we had today based upon how they are specking it and how they will be able to look at some of those factors. Council President Buckholtz asked if we would have more information by Caucus for discussion. Mayor Rinker stated that he should have information back relatively quickly, so we should be able to discuss it then. Mr. Metzung asked what questions should be answered. Dr. Parker stated that one, once these lights are put in, will we be able to remove the existing street lighting. Mr. Metzung stated that is part of the plan. Dr. Parker asked what the effect would be. Will it be an improvement in the glare effect? Mayor Rinker stated that it should be. The height is 35, we are bringing it down. Part of this is you get into discussion with engineers as to the standards you want. North Commons is different land so it has a lot of light illusion up out and around. You get the whole halo effect. The lighting there is pretty intensive. What we have now is a pie and it is more a diffused light, a softer light, but it is still something that is much more visible and covers a longer distance for the most part. What we are looking at is the higher the land, the more you will allow for continuous lighting at the roadway. The idea is to keep even enough light for traffic purposes to limit that kind of dark to light effect. There will be some areas where we may get a little bit of that, but at intersections, the lighting will be more intensive because the poles will be closer together. The idea of doing the 20 footers in the sections where they are on there where you do not have median, those tend to be more our "downtown" section, basically from Fisher's back and then if we do up to Seneca then it will be that section as well. He has asked them to look at specking the base so that the load on the pole can carry banners, plants or other decorations. The idea is that you can use those lower poles in that kind of commercial district, that corridor, to full advantage. By getting down lower 20 feet, you have to remember you have to clear trucks. They are about 17 foot. We are getting it down about as low as we can to avoid any problems with traffic yet at the same time by lowering it down and then shielding it, a partial shielding effect so that you still get most of your light passed down on either sidewalk and road surface and not that glare that you get out to homeowners. There is still a certain amount of allowing that comb to be spread out so that you get more even lighting along the street. That is a lot of the discussion that we had today to define that issue. But at the end of the day, the goal is that, like at Highland for example, that is where you are going to have all side-mounted lighting, there are a lot of houses in that area. You will have it a little closer at the intersection, but otherwise for the homes that are right there on front street, that lighting should be less intense, it will be more intimate lighting and will be a little better lighting on the sidewalk and street area itself, so it will bring the lighting down closer to make it better illumination at a lower level. By bringing it down, the light should be minimized. Dr. Parker stated that it would be nice if they could provide us with a drawing that would show a typical home with a light and depict it. Mayor Rinker indicated that they said they could do the