Encino : New Light Poles Will Brighten Hill Roads

The level of lighting in parts of the Encino Hills should double by early next year, after the Los Angeles City Council voted Wednesday to install 185 new residential light poles at the cost of $277,500.

The high-pressure sodium lamps made of ripple-patterned concrete will be installed on a 3 1/2-mile stretch of hill roads, encompassing parts of Havenhurst Avenue and Encino Hills, Escalon, Green Vista and Terrace View drives and Ivyside Place.

“The lighting level will significantly increase,” explained Philip H. Reed Jr., an engineer for the Bureau of Street Lighting. He said the new lights “give you the most light for the least amount of energy.”

The council vote overturned the Dec. 14 recommendations of the city’s Cultural Affairs Commission, which opposed the lighting project because the city lacks a master lighting plan.

The commission did not oppose the lights themselves, explained commission secretary Mary Ann Skoko, but rather the haphazard manner in which the city installs street lights.

“A few years back, to conserve on energy, they put in fewer lights, but residents have complained,” Skoko said. “When you drive through the hills at night, it’s very dark.”

The project to which Skoko refers was initiated in 1992 for less than $100,000.

The new lights will replace the previous 109 lights, and will amount “to about one pole for each house” in the area, she said.

Installation of the lights is scheduled to begin in the fall, Reed said.

Also Wednesday, the council instructed the Public Works Department to complete a street light master plan for the city within 30 days.