Streetlights Management Plan

The Streetlight Management Plan (SMP) public process was completed in early 2019, upon receipt of public comments on the draft plan. The final plan was released and became effective in February 2020 after thorough internal review and coordination with existing County plans and projects.

Thank you to the SMP Advisory Panel members for their input and guidance and the residents who participated in this thorough and engaging project. Together, we worked to design a guide that standardizes our streetlight program while incorporating innovative and sustainable technology for the future of streetlights in Arlington.

The core principles and standards have been adopted, including:

• Lower color temperature standard for LED lights – 3000 degrees Kelvin for residential streets, 4000 degrees Kelvin for commercial and mixed-use areas
• More choices of county-owned light styles – Carlyle in commercial areas, Cobra in residential areas
• Ownership districting – moving towards County ownership in commercial areas and Dominion Energy ownership in residential areas

Arlington has made several improvements, including:

• Staff worked on procuring new equipment per the new SMP standards that will help us meet defined maintenance service levels.

• Staff participated in negotiations with Dominion to improve and update their streetlight service, including:
  • Significantly reducing the cost of LED lights through VEPGA negotiation
  • Offering LED lights and replacing HPS lights through their regular maintenance activities.
  • Following the new county standards to provide a more adequate light distribution pattern.
  • Committing to make their LED lighting program smart city ready.

Staff has also worked with Dominion to establish a three-month “backlog clearing” project in which Dominion has committed to repair all overdue outages. Staff continuously coordinates with Dominion to sustain a reasonable maintenance service level.

View the Streetlight Management Plan 

Project Description

The Streetlight Management Plan (SMP) focuses on researching new streetlight technology, investigating ways to enhance the appearance of our streetscapes, updating lighting standards and improving outage reporting. The SMP will also guide County staff on the selection of future streetlight technology, optimization of maintenance, and general service delivery needs.

The SMP Community Advisory Panel will provide a forum for key stakeholders to advise County staff on safety, sustainability (energy savings, health, environmental impacts), technology and streetscape priorities.

Planning Process Background:

The planning process began in the fall of 2015, and has consisted of collecting data and conducting research and analysis. This includes: assessing the County’s current streetlight inventory and operations; partnerships with other agencies (such as Dominion Virginia Power); and best practices among similar jurisdictions.  For general information on streetlights in Arlington, visit our streetlights website.

Streetlight Demonstration

In mid-January, new LED streetlights were temporarily installed for a streetlight demonstration. During this time, two streetlight demonstration tours for the Streetlight Community Advisory Panel and public were hosted by the County on Wednesday, May 2 and Saturday, May 12 to share more about the streetlight technology and different products. The following locations were selected:

• S Irving St between 7th St S and 9th St S
• S Ivy St between 7th St S and 9th St S
• 9th St S between S Ivy St and S Quincy St
• 6th St S between S Glebe Rd and S Quincy St
• 7th St S between S Glebe Rd and S Quincy St
• 8th St S between S Glebe Rd and S Quincy St
• Columbia Pike between S Oakland St and S Veitch St
• George Mason Dr between Lee Hwy and Washington Blvd

View a map of the commercial and residential streetlight locations. 

Streetlights for the demonstration have been removed and the original streetlights have been re-installed.

Advisory Panel Members & Affiliation

Documents

All project documents related to the Streetlight Management Plan are posted below:

• Meeting 1: Kick-off and Background Presentation 
• Arlington County’s Streetlighting Masterplan Report
• Meeting 2: Presentations from experts
  • Lighting Design Concepts Presentation from Designer Randy Burkett
  • Technology Review and LED Concerns Presentation from U.S. Department of Energy’s Bruce Kinzey
  • State of Streetlight Maintenance Presentation from Arlington County Transportation Engineering & Operations Bureau’s Scott Sedwick
• Meeting 3: Consultant SMP Draft Presentation
• Meeting 4: Streetlights Program Update and SMP Overview Presentation
• Meeting 5: Presentation and Streetlight Demonstration
  • Dominion Energy Streetlight Data and Restorations Process Presentation
  • Proposed Streetlight Districts(JPG, 92KB)
  • Current County Streetlighting Technology Overview
  • Arlington County Streetlight Districting Overview
• Meeting 6: Field Demonstration Presentation
• Meeting 7: SMP Report and Recommendations Presentation 

Project Dates

Public Engagement Process

In May 2018, Arlington County hosted two field demonstration tours to: educate the community about the streetlight management plan; provide an overview of the technology and different products under consideration; and to listen to community feedback. Over 60 residents registered for the tours. An additional field demonstration was held with surrounding jurisdictions and partners.

Over 700 participants shared input via the County’s online comment form. A summary of the public feedback will be available online later this summer.

The streetlights will also be evaluated from a technical standard. This, along with the public feedback, will inform our streetlight management plan.

(PNG, 403KB)