Rancho Cordova residents rather stay "black" than go "green"

Residents of a Rancho Cordova neighborhood say they prefer starlit skies and dark streets to the glare and hardware associated with "green" lighting.

Yielding to pleas of people living on and near La Placita Drive, the City Council agreed Monday to find someplace else to install solar-powered street lights.

Cyrus Abhar, city public works director, said the county, before Rancho Cordova's incorporation, decided to put in street lights on La Placita Drive as a public safety measure.

Mayor Linda Budge noted that many of the community's older neighborhoods were built before street lights were required in subdivisions.

Following incorporation, the city received a tentative design from the county and mailed ballots to residents. A majority favored the project, Abhar said.

But when bids came in higher than anticipated, the city sought to reduce costs. Staff members said they selected solar-powered LED lights to avoid the expense of trenching for power lines. They also reduced the overall number of lights and decided to place them only at street corners.

A number of residents responded with a petition, saying the lights were not needed and objecting to the appearance of the solar-related fixtures, including a solar panel the size of a ceiling tile atop a 20-foot-tall pole and an above-ground battery box.

The design and type of lights has changed since the project was first presented, said La Placita resident Therese Burke.

"What's going on in our neighborhood that we need so many lights?" she asked. "People leave their porch lights on."

Burke suggested the community would be better served by installing the lights on streets children use to walk to school.

Shaun Newmarch, who lives on La Grama Drive and which intersects with La Placita, said he was not necessarily opposed to street lights, but the proposed cobra-style fixtures with solar panels don't fit the character of the neighborhood.

"They look like something in a football park or strip mall," he said.

Newmarch suggested placing them on streets around Cordova Meadows Elementary School to improve safety in an area that has a problem with speeding vehicles.

The city received a $67,000 grant from the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency to fund the project. Because of the recent controversy, staff members said SHRA officials agreed to honor the grant if the city chose to put the lights at another location.

Abhar said designs for solar-powered street lights are relatively limited, adding that he wasn't aware of any other agency in the region that had installed them in residential neighborhoods.

"We wanted to try something new and test new technology," he said.

The major savings is in the upfront costs, because the solar-powered lights don't require expensive trenching. Maintenance costs for solar and conventional electric street lights are about the same, Abhar said.

The council voted to rescind the contract for street light installation in the La Placita neighborhood and directed staff members to seek other locations for the lights.

But officials stressed that the city remains committed to going "green."

Mayor Budge said, "The city is trying very hard to make sure that we are sustainable and built for the future."