Memorandum

City of Lawrence

City Manager’s Office

TO:	David L. Corliss, City Manager
FROM:	Jonathan Douglass, Assistant to the City Manager
CC:	Charles Soules, Director of Public Works Michael Eglinski, City Auditor
DATE:	May 12, 2009
RE:	Street Light Survey

Concurrent with the City Auditor’s performance audit of street lighting in the City of Lawrence, I have begun surveying other communities (Overland Park, Lenexa, Olathe and Topeka) regarding their street lighting standards and general operations of their street lighting systems. The major findings thus far are summarized below. Further research into any of these items can be conducted if appropriate.

General Level of Street Lighting

To get a general sense of the level of street lighting in a community, I divided the total number of street lights by the centerline miles of streets in the community. By this measure Lawrence is on the lower end but does not appear to be an outlier in terms of overall street lighting levels.

City	Street Lights per Centerline Mile
Olathe	9.7
Lawrence	11.5
Topeka	13.1
Lenexa	14.0
Overland Park	16.1

Street Light Ownership

Street lights in Lawrence are predominantly utility owned – Westar owns the vast majority and the city “leases” them, paying a monthly rate depending on the type of light and pole. In Topeka, street light ownership is similar to the situation in Lawrence. In some other cities, the lights are predominantly city owned, or there is a mixture of utility and city ownership.

In Overland Park and Lenexa, the street lights are predominantly city owned. While approximately 25% of the lights in Overland Park are utility owned, the city has over time been replacing those lights with city owned lights as part of major street projects. The City of Lenexa recently bought out almost all of the lights that had been owned by the utility.

In Olathe the city owns half the street lights and two utilities own the other half of the streetlights. The city is exploring the possibility of buying out some or all of the utility owned lights.

Street Lighting Standards

The City of Lawrence does not have photometric/luminosity standards for street lighting (while there are minimum standards and photometric analyses required for site planning parking lots, there are no standards for streets). When the city asks Westar to design lighting for a major new street, it is our understanding that Westar utilizes Illuminating Engineering Society (IES) standards in the design. Generally, the city places lights at intersections, at mid-block locations, and near the end of cul-de-sacs. Topeka follows generally the same practices as Lawrence.

Lenexa, Olathe and Overland Park all follow the IES standards for major streets, but light smaller streets less intensely than the IES standards would call for.

Energy Efficiency

None of the cities, including Lawrence, use LED (light emitting diode) lights for street lights (except in some trial cases). All of the cities have done some research into the feasibility of using LEDs, but all report that the luminosity is inadequate and the technology is not yet cost effective. In June the City of Olathe is planning a demonstration of a number of different lighting technologies, including LEDs and other bulbs, to offer a head-to-head illustration of the lighting quality available.