Village Board Moves To Develop Petitions For More Alley Lighting

WHITEFISH BAY, WI — More lighting might eventually be coming to an alleyway near you in Whitefish Bay.

At its meeting Monday, the Board of Trustees moved to have village staff develop a block-by-block petition process that would allow residents to signal their desire to have streetlights installed in their alleys.

Whitefish Bay has 50 public alleys across the village, about 4.7 miles altogether, but only about 40 percent of them have street lights from We Energies, according to the latest village newsletter. The move on Monday comes after a Feb. 15 Public Works Committee meeting that recommended the village creates a homeowner petition process to add alley street lighting.

The petitions, which have yet to be developed entirely, will allow for village approval of new streetlights in unlit alleys after 55 percent of the alley-adjacent homeowners on that block sign in favor of adding them.

To install streetlights in every alley that is currently unlit would come with a one-time cost of about $7500, according to village documents. To run all of those extra lights would cost about $7680 per year. The village currently pays $4200 per year for its existing 35 alley streetlights.

If a block were to petition for alley lighting, the Village Board could then approve it and request We Energies to proceed with the improvements, according to the latest village newsletter.