UPDATED: Plan for lighting Dallas’ White Rock Lake flawed

by Chip Northrup

UPDATE: Tonight's meeting has been canceled; the next meeting has yet to be determined.

Tonight (December 1) at 5:30, consultants will present their draft plan for lighting White Rock Lake at Parks Department Northwest Highway Office at Flag Pole Hill.

Based on what they have presented so far, one can draw two fundamental conclusions:

1. Master Plan - none of the lights proposed for W. Lawther followed the guidelines of the White Rock Lake Master Plan. In fact, they do not even conform with "best practices" in exterior lighting, so they have to be removed as part of an overall revised plan for the lake.

2. Non-conforming lights - Most of the lights in the park do not meet the criteria in the Master Plan, so the first priority should be to remove or replace them. Since Parks is dealing with a limited budget, this should be Job One, or it will not get done.

For instance - Parks uses floodlights to illuminate large areas all night long. This is wasteful and causes light pollution in the neighborhoods.

High pole lights are left on at the Winfrey Point baseball diamonds, at the Sunset Bay parking lot, the T&P Hill parking lot, the Bath House parking lot, etc. all night.

Parks uses cheap highway "pod" fixtures with orange crime lights on some lots. All of these lights are non-compliant. All of them have to be removed, replaced, or simply turned off before any new lights are installed in the park.

This article was submitted by a member of the Pegasus News community.

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alexander troup, says:

It is a shame about lighting these day, Moonlight was once upon a time, now it is flood light, A/T, Old timmer with flash light.

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1 year ago
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chiptex, says:

Meeting has been canceled - consultants not ready

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1 year ago
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Travis Bush, says:

Sounds like everyone is in the dark...

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1 year ago
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chiptex, says:

Update Jr. Parks presented draft plan that was voted down by the Task Force on February 12th. Voting against 600 new pole lights on the shoreline and nature trail were: White Rock Neighborhood Association Peninsula Neighborhood Association Greater Dallas Bikes Corinthian Sailing Club For the Love of the Lake See http://www.ladycdesign.com/WRL

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9 months, 1 week ago
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xdavidwattsx, says:

600? The email you sent out two days ago said 900. It also said the lake would be lit up like a prison yard, home prices at the lake would plummet, and the sky was falling.

If you're going to keep using scare tactics then at least stick to your story so it will be consistent. The lighting plan that has been refined and presented is a good plan.

After all, they just pulled a body out of the lake early yesterday morning so seems there is certainly a practical need.