TO: Mayor and Members of City Council
THRU: Michael Gibson, Interim Assistant City Manager
Jodi Phelps, Assistant City Manager
FROM: Sheila Thomas-Ambat, Public Services Director
Byron Reeves, Deputy Public Services Director
Brian McGill, Assistant Public Services Director
Benjamin Shepherd, City Traffic Engineer
Andrew Mansell, City Manager’s Office
DATE: September 8, 2026
RE:Title
Thoroughfare Streetlighting and Subdivision Streetlighting
Title
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COUNCIL DISTRICT(S):
Council District(s)
All
b
Relationship To Strategic Plan:
Goal I: The City of Fayetteville will be a safe and secure community.
Objective 1.2: To ensure traffic and pedestrian safety.
Goal IV: The City of Fayetteville will be a desirable place to live, work, and recreate.
Objective 4.5: To ensure a place for people to live in great neighborhoods.
Executive Summary:
The existing street lighting ordinance does not identify how funding is provided for new streetlight projects in existing unlit residential subdivisions. Following recent requests for streetlights in those subdivisions, City staff have reviewed the ordinances, assessed the existing lighting coverage on thoroughfare streets and residential subdivisions and estimated the cost to light all currently unlit subdivisions, as well as the remaining thoroughfares.
Staff are requesting guidance from Council regarding how to resolve streetlighting requests in existing unlit residential subdivisions.
Background:
Thoroughfare Streetlight Background
Staff consider a thoroughfare as a freeway, arterial, or collector road utilizing the functional classification provided by NCDOT. When reviewing all public freeways, arterial roads, and collector roads across the City, staff estimate that roughly 80% of the city’s thoroughfare streets have streetlights.
There are four energy providers within the City limits that provide streetlighting along our thoroughfares. These providers are PWC, Duke Energy, South River EMC, and Lumbee River EMC. Installation cost for thoroughfare streetlights is covered by the Capital Improvement Project (CIP) fund. Once installed and activated, the City pays monthly operations bills for thoroughfare streetlights from the general fund of Public Services. It is important to note that streetlights are not Powell Bill eligible.
A search of “street light” and “streetlight” in the historic items brought before Council will show that the last time substantive information was provided on this topic was February 4, 2019, with File #18-555. From that file (included as an attachment for reference), it established a Target For Action under Goal 1 to provide a Unified Street Light Plan.
Since those work sessions, staff have been at work for the past seven years having Thoroughfare Streetlight projects installed or initiated.
Subdivision Streetlights Background
While working on thoroughfare streetlights, a request for lighting in neighborhoods has been received that requires direction from Council to resolve. Our ordinances do not adequately delineate residential subdivision streetlights and thoroughfare streetlights.
Staff estimate that more than 95% of the City’s subdivisions with public streets have streetlights. Although streetlights are required for new residential developments, staff have identified seven subdivisions that do not currently have streetlighting.
When a new residential development comes into the City, the installation of streetlighting is paid for by the developer, and the operational cost is either charged to the HOA or assessed to the residents via a surcharge on individual bills. For subdivisions with privately maintained roads, betterments on those roads would be the responsibility of the road owner - often an HOA. For publicly maintained unlit roads in existing subdivisions with no HOA, there is no clear process for resolving streetlight requests. This has become the case for Wendover Place, which has driven the current discussion.
City ordinances require residents in residential developments with streetlighting to pay the utility directly through their individual electric accounts via a streetlight tariff. Based on Public Services staff’s research, Duke Energy has indicated that new community streetlighting requires a single responsible account holder and that new streetlighting tariffs would not be applied directly to individual residential electric accounts. Because Wendover Place does not have an HOA that could serve as the account holder responsible, additional clarification with Duke Energy may be helpful in determining whether an alternative billing arrangement is available that would allow the City’s ordinance requirements to be met. Public Services staff will seek additional guidance through the City Manager’s Office to further clarify Duke Energy’s requirements and explore with Duke Energy leadership whether an alternative billing arrangement may be available to meet the City’s ordinance requirements.
When looking at the next logical funding source, the City, there is no existing CIP funding for non-thoroughfare streetlighting, nor any clear process for resolving the request. Additionally, this would result in the City assuming the ongoing operational costs for a subdivisions streetlighting while residents in other subdivisions would continue to pay their respective streetlighting surcharge through their individual electric accounts.
After reviewing and analyzing options for resolving the request for streetlighting on an unlit public road in an existing subdivision, staff have identified three potential policy options, discussed in more detail below.
Issues/Analysis:
Thoroughfare Issues/Analysis
From an October 1, 2018 Work Session, it was stated that to complete all 58 miles of lights along unlit thoroughfares would include a need for an additional $2.2 Million in capital costs and $46,000/monthly ($552,000/annually) in operating costs. From the February 4, 2019 Work Session, installation costs vary widely from a total of $551,000 needed to $16,800,000 Million needed for 58 miles of unlit thoroughfare. This would create an additional $400,000 - $500,000 per year in operation costs for those 58 miles.
Since the last update in 2019, approximately 15 miles of Thoroughfare Street Lighting was installed across the following corridors:
• Cliffdale Road from Skibo Road to South Reilly Road (2.6 Miles)
• McArthur Road from 0.53 Miles North of Ramsey Street to Caskey Drive (0.4 Miles)
• McArthur Road from approximately Anson Drive to I-295 (0.25 Miles)
• Bingham Drive from Shenandoah Drive to Raeford Road (1.6 Miles)
• Bailey Lake Road from Bingham Drive to Strickland Bridge Road (1.3 Miles)
• Strickland Bridge Road from Stillwater Drive to Brinkman Road (1.6 Miles)
• South Reilly Road from Cliffdale Road to Morganton Road (1.5 Miles)
• North Reilly Road from Morganton Road to City Limits (1.4 Miles)
• Cliffdale Road from Beaver Run Drive to Raeford Road (2.0 Miles)
• Hoke Loop Road from Cliffdale Road to Raeford Road (2.4 Miles)
Additionally, the following corridors, representing approximately 6.5 miles of unlit thoroughfare and 1 mile of lit thoroughfare receiving enhanced lighting, are in current coordination with the respective utility provider for design and installation:
• Andrews Road from Ramsey Street to City Limits (0.19 Miles)
• McArthur Road from Ramsey Street to 0.53 miles north of Ramsey Street (0.53 Miles)
• Stoney Point Road from Lakewood Drive to Grimes Road (1.3 Miles)
• Lakewood Drive/King Road from Town Center Drive to Dundle Road (0.9 Miles)
• Rim Road/Gillis Hill Road from Cliffdale Road to Raeford Road (2.3 Miles)
• Dundle Road from King Road to Heatherbrooke Road (1.3 Miles)
• Enhancement - Yadkin Road from Santa Fe Drive to Lake Valley Drive (1.0 Mile)
Presently, counting the roads with active design and installation projects plan, we have approximately 55 Miles of unlit thoroughfare, 19 miles of which is I-295. Three freeways account for 27.6 miles of unlit thoroughfare - I-295, MLK (NC 87), and the All-American Freeway. The remaining unlit non-freeway thoroughfares amount to 28.3 miles of roadway.
Subdivision Issues/Analysis
With no structured funding source for subdivision lighting in our CIP, and the ordinances being unclear, staff have reviewed potential policy options and have identified four paths forward to resolve these requests. Options 1 through 3 would add a new ongoing demand on the transportation fund and compete for funding against the larger infrastructure program of sidewalks, bike lanes, bridge preservation, pavement preservation and resurfacing, and other projects such as the One-Way In/Out Connectivity Projects.
Option 1 - Per the City Charter, Council can order streetlighting improvements with or without a petition and fund it through a special assessment. Costs associated with this improvement can be assessed to the properties that benefit from the improvement. Annual assessments can cover excess maintenance and operating costs. This approach follows the same logic as paving, curb and gutter, or sidewalks. There is precedent for this option as the 2007-08 Council used no petition assessments to pave soil streets, with property owners assessed from a fee schedule.
Option 2 - Amend City Ordinances to establish a formal petition process that is consistent with NCGS 160A-217. Residents would petition the City to install streetlights within their unlit neighborhood. If approved, the cost of the improvement is assessed to the benefiting property owners. This process is community driven rather than initiated by the City. It creates a clear, consistent, and predictable pathway for residential streetlight requests. It would also establish a defined process for evaluating, approving, funding, and implementing streetlighting improvements.
Option 3 - Create a dedicated Residential Streetlight CIP, modeled on the existing Thoroughfare Streetlight CIP. This option would see the City fund 100% of the capital cost for installation and assume the ongoing operations cost. There would be no assessment to individual property owners.
Option 4 - Maintain the current approach with no new residential streetlight program or funding for unlit neighborhoods.
Budget Impact:
Thoroughfare Budget Impact
It should be noted that the installation of thoroughfare streetlighting on freeways is more expensive than other arterials due to the stricter design requirements for roadside objects. Based on recent streetlighting projects and through coordination with the utility providers, staff assume the following:
• Freeway - $120,000/mile of streetlight installation
• Arterial & Collector - $30,000/mile of streetlight installation
• Freeway, Arterial, and Collector - $470/month per mile of additional streetlight operations
Installation cost for thoroughfare streetlights is covered by the CIP, which currently has approximately $530,000 available for new lighting projects; Staff are continuing to prioritize corridors requiring illumination while focusing on fiscal efficiency. The current operations expense for thoroughfare streetlighting is approximately $37,000/month, or $445,000/year.
Installing streetlights along the remaining corridors is estimated to cost approximately $4.2 million. Additionally, this will result in an operational expense increase of approximately $26,000/month, increasing the total operating expense for lighting to approximately $63,000/month, or $759,000/year.
Setting aside freeways for this discussion, completing just the remaining non-freeway thoroughfare streetlighting corridors (28.3 Miles) is expected to cost around $849,000 to install, while increasing the operational cost of streetlights by approximately $13,300/month to a total of approximately $50,300/month or $603,600/year.
If non-freeway corridors were set aside for this discussion, then the remaining freeway corridors (27.6 Miles) is expected to cost around $3.33M to install, while increasing the operational cost of streetlights by approximately $13,000/month to a total of approximately $50,000/month or $600,000/year.
Subdivision Budget Impact
Utilizing the same values of $30,000/mile for installation, installing streetlights in the seven unlit residential neighborhoods would cost approximately $195,000. It should be noted that staff have already received a cost estimate for Wendover Place, at a total of $117,000. Wendover Place is a subdivision with underground power. Because of this requirement, boring, trenching, and excavation would be required at an expense of $94,600. The remaining six neighborhoods would cost approximately $78,000 for streetlighting installation. Subdivision streetlighting tends to be operationally less expensive. To provide a conservative estimate, assuming the same value of $460/month per mile of streetlighting installed, staff estimate the operational expense as not to exceed $1,600/month, or $19,200/year, for the remaining unlit subdivisions combined.
With the above funding estimates identified, Staff are requesting guidance from Council regarding how to resolve streetlighting requests in existing unlit residential subdivisions.
Options:
1. Direct staff to draft resolution, prepare assessment rolls, and bring a fee schedule for adoption.
2. Direct staff to draft necessary ordinance text and bring a fee schedule for adoption.
3. Direct staff to prepare a Residential Streetlight CIP for the FY28 budget.
4. Maintain the current approach with no new residential streetlight program or funding for unlit neighborhoods.
Recommended Action::Recommended Action
2. Direct staff to draft necessary ordinance text and bring a fee schedule for adoption.
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Attachments:
Streelight Overview & Recommendations presentation
File #18-555 - Update for Street Light Plan - Target for Action