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City of Goleta makes progress on LED street lighting project to install more cost effective lights

Courtesy: City of Goleta

The city of Goleta is planning to replace more than 1,400 streetlight fixtures, which are expected to be more efficient and cost effective among other advantages.

The Goleta Department of Public Works is recommending the city approve the General Electric LED street light fixtures after working on the project for the past four years.

GE is being recommended over American Electric, Phillips and Cooper street lights based on public feedback, manufacturer history, fixture performance and continuity with other street lights.

The city said these new lights will require less maintenance, and improve visibility and safety due to more focused lighting.

Community members were invited to comment about the project during a virtual meeting on March 10.

Barbara Massey is one of several Goleta residents who is concerned about the proposed fixtures.

“The street lights I saw in the pilot study were really all too bright and the lights spread out far too much around,” Massey said. “I think they would work on major streets with no homes behind them, but none of these we saw were anything that we would want in a residential area.”

Jason Tanko is the CEO of Tanko Lighting, the company hired to offer consulting for the streetlight project.

He said all the fixtures are Dark-Sky compliant- meaning they will produce less light pollution compared to the current street light system.

“All of the fixtures considered were Dark-Skies,” Tanko said. “They have zero uplight. The International Dark-Sky Association standard for dark-skies is no more than two percent. But all of these lights have zero percent uplight.”

The Tanko Lighting project manager, Emily Danko, said the streetlights are expected to reduce the city’s energy use by about half and save more than $115,000 in energy costs in the first year of implementation.

Pending design approval, installation for the project is expected to begin this summer for completion by the end of the year.

Rachel Showalter first joined KCBX as an intern from Cal Poly in 2017. During her time in college, she anchored and reported for Mustang News at Cal Poly's radio station, KCPR. After graduating, she took her first job as a Producer at KSBY-TV. She returned to the KCBX team in October 2020, reporting daily for KCBX News until she moved to the Pacific Northwest in July of 2022. Rachel spends her off-days climbing rocks, cooking artichokes and fighting crosswords with friends.
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