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Cliff business owners plead for streetlights
Posted 3/2/01 by John Gessner Owners of businesses along Cliff Road in north Burnsville asked the City Council Feb. 27 to deliver what some of them have sought for years: streetlights. Questions remain about what type of lights to install ó such as ìshoeboxes,î ìcobraheadsî or ìacornsî ó and how to pay for them. ìShoeboxes, I donít care what we (have). Flares. But we need help,î said John Jacobs, owner of Commercial Environments at 1428 E. Cliff Road. Pro-streetlight Cliff Road business owners failed to convince other Cliff Road business owners to support a streetlight ballot last April. But the city is now in the process of writing its first comprehensive streetlight plan, and business owners are reviving the issue. The city plan includes recommendations for ìthemeî lighting in parts of Burnsville and installation of lights along unlit parts of arterial roads. The council took public comments on the plan Feb. 27. Most vocal in calling for Cliff Road streetlights has been the North Burnsville Coalition, a group within the Burnsville Chamber of Commerce that has also pushed for other improvements on Cliff Road east of Nicollet Avenue. Coalition members say the darkened stretch of Cliff going east up the hill from Nicollet is unsafe to motorists and invites property crimes. Ken Slipka of Mid-America Power Drives, which operates out of three Cliff Road buildings, said heís had ìnumerous break-in attempts and multiple alarms going off at night.î Car-deer accidents are also a hazard, Slipka said, noting that the only streetlight in the immediate area is at Cliff and Nicollet. ìItís a scary trip going up and down that hill,î Jacobs said, adding that large trucks from Pepsi Bottling Group and Yellow Freight worsen the problem. In last Aprilís balloting, six Cliff Road property owners voted for lights and 18 voted against them. Twenty-four of the 35 ballots the city sent to Cliff Road property owners were returned, said chamber President Barb Obershaw. A 60 percent ìyesî vote was required. Property owners were voting on a $270,000 plan to install shoebox lights. Property owners would have borne the entire cost. ìThe costs are pretty darn high,î said Slipka, noting that business owners and city officials also discussed ìacornî lights, which are cheaper but ìnot real attractive.î More cautious about adding streetlights was Maggie Linvill, president of Linvill Properties, which owns properties on Cliff. Linvill said lighting is less of a problem in the more developed area farther east of Nicollet, where there is more traffic and fewer break-ins. She called for any streetlight plan to have an ìequitable formula for cost-sharingî that doesnít burden business owners with less need for new lighting. The cityís inexperience in handling business requests for streetlights, as opposed to the far more common requests from residential neighborhoods, is one reason the streetlight plan is being written. Jacobs said after the meeting that council members appeared receptive to the request and agreed that Cliff needs lighting. He said he hopes that under a new comprehensive streetlight plan, the businesses wouldnít have to pay the entire cost. The plan calls for continuous lighting on Burnsvilleís 30 miles of arterial road, which includes Cliff, at a cost to the city of $100,000 to $300,000. Some stretches of arterial road donít have lights. The plan also calls for theme lighting in the Heart of the City redevelopment area; the Minnesota River northwest quadrant, home of the proposed Black Dog Amphitheater; and the area around Burnsville Center. It also recommends new procedures for petitioning for streetlights in residential neighborhoods. Under current policy, a petition of 10 percent of property owners in the project area triggers a balloting process in which 60 percent of voters must approve the lights. Under the new plan, a 20 percent petition would be required. Turnout was light at the Feb. 27 meeting. Given the number of calls heís gotten on streetlights, Council Member Charlie Crichton called it disappointing. ìThey have been in the loop for four years,î said Mayor Elizabeth Kautz.
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