What would happen if the Village of Key Biscayne added 546 streetlights?

“It might change the entire fabric of the island,” Vice Mayor Oscar Sardiñas said at last week’s Village Council meeting. “I don’t know if we need that many.”

That number was the recommendation from a recent photometric study that looks at dark areas in terms of “standard streetlight planning” from a safety perspective. According to Village Manager Steve Williamson, there are currently about 175 such lights in the special taxing district and 245 lights which the Village owns outright.

The original thought was to take the special taxing district lights, and the ones the Village owns, and move forward with a possible transfer to Florida Power and Electric, if approved by Council.

“With that many lights, putting the shortfall ahead (might be the best solution). I need your direction,” Williamson said. “It comes down to how much coverage we want,” Williamson said, noting that there is no hard law requiring the Village to go to that extreme.

Williamson did say in the northwest corner of the Village, for example, there are no lights, while on other streets there are maybe two or three poles.

He told Islander News on Friday that he’d like to put the needs in “buckets, in terms of priority,” such as an area that’s an important place to put a light, or an area that might need a lot of lights, or areas that are bright enough as they are.

A photometric analysis is a computer-generated simulation that predicts how lighting fixtures will distribute light across a defined space before installation.

Williamson said he was notified days after the Council meeting that FPL’s latest estimated cost for 546 new lights and poles would be about $25,000 to $30,000 a month amortized over 10 years (FPL’s choice of payment) for a total cost of $3.6 million.

“That’s far better than the $7.2 million (which was originally mentioned Tuesday night),” he said, adding that 546 new lights likely would not be a reality anyway.

Councilman Michael Bracken agreed with Sardiñas that it would be smart to start the process with the dark gaps in the Village and go from there, but first study which current lights are compliant based on lumens.

The item will be brought back to Council at a future date for a final decision.