02-25-1993 Special Called Meeting of the La Porte Planning and Zoning Commission

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• • STREET LIGHTING REPORT • FEBRUARY 25, 1993 Per the Staff Report of February 18, 1993, a review has been made of the Street Lighting Policy of the City of La Porte with regard to major subdivision proposals per the Development Ordinance. The following is provided to the Planning Commission for consideration as a new policy in rural, semi-rural, and sparsely developed areas. BACKGROUND The purpose of lighting along the roadways, parking facilities and pedestrian facilities in a community is to provide safe travel for both vehicular and pedestrian traffic. For the purpose of this report as there is no parking involved and no pedestrian facilities in the area, comments are confined to lighting along roadways. In attempting to provide this safety factor a number of issues must be examined to assure that the street lighting requirements are sensitive to the street hierarchy and character of the area. Roads that carry greater traffic volumes and have wider rights-of--way need better • lighting. Commercial areas, especially those with heavy nighttime traffic, need more lighting than residential areas and more densely populated areas need more lighting than rural areas. In order to address these issues, the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES) developed their standards around street hierarchies and area classifications. The one failure in their recommendations is the lack of any separation for different types of residential areas. As the Commission knows, there is a large difference between a Fairmont Park Subdivision and a rural lot in northwest La Porte. ANALYSIS As a part of the analysis, the Staff took into account several factors which included Houston Lighting & Power policy, types of streets in the northwest area, typical development size and current street lighting in the area. Contact with HL&P revealed that they design strictly by the IES Standards with no regard to the character of the area. Once their design is complete it is up to the City to determine if there are too many and delete those considered unnecessary. The streets in the area fall into two basic categories unless they are part of a typical small lot residential subdivision. The majority of the streets in the area are minor arterial in • nature providing east-west traffic flow with large acreage tracts fronting on the roadways.