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Pasco study recommends closer street-light spacing; council weighs grandfathering and cost impacts
Summary
A DKS study recommended reducing pole spacing (arterial ~120 ft, collector ~155 ft, local ~180 ft) after the PUD removed a 300-foot maximum; council signaled support for updating standards but asked staff to propose phased/timing options to avoid imposing retroactive costs on in-progress developments.
City staff presented a lighting-study-based set of recommended street-lighting spacings and sought council guidance on whether to incorporate them into City of Pasco standards.
Public Works Director Maria Serra said the city's engineering standards require luminance minimums by roadway classification. Staff engaged consultant DKS to model typical intersections and road segments and said the firm recommended baseline pole spacing of roughly 120 feet for arterial roads, 155 feet for collectors and 180 feet for local-access streets to meet illuminance safety guidelines. Serra said the regional PUD had recently removed an explicitly stated 300-foot maximum spacing; that change, combined with earlier practice, left some projects underlit by the city's engineering requirements.
Council members expressed support for the safety rationale but raised concerns about cost and the effect on projects already in phased development. Councilman Perales recommended applying the new standard only to new permits and capital projects so projects already in advanced design aren't forced to redesign; he asked about the cost of a per-project lighting study (staff estimated project studies can range from a few thousand dollars up to $10,000'$15,000 and said the citywide DKS study cost roughly $22,000). Staff noted technical exceptions will still be required for curved roads, steep slopes or nonstandard intersections, and said modeling and verification can be performed by on-call municipal engineering consultants when needed.
Mayor Pro Tem Grimm and other council members asked staff to return with clear implementation options and a timeline (for example, a specific effective date after which new permits would be required to meet the new spacing), and to propose objective criteria to distinguish an additional phase of an existing plat from an entirely new development. Serra said staff will bring back proposals for implementation and grandfathering provisions.
Why it matters: Closer pole spacing improves uniformity of illumination and pedestrian/traffic safety but can raise infrastructure costs for developers and, indirectly, new homeowners. Council emphasized predictability for the development community and asked staff to recommend time-based or plan-based transition rules rather than retroactive redesigns.
