After years of lobbying to light up their alleys, Windsor residents will now have a framework for city-installed lighting in the laneways behind homes.
But it doesn't come without a price.
Residents requesting alley lighting will be required to follow a local improvement process through a petition to the city.
Councillor Rino Bortolin told CTV Windsor, "An alley light could be roughly $1,400, so if you did an entire block, $5,000 to $6,000, you divide it up over the entire block."
The city will not pay anything for the installation costs, but will then pick up the tab for 100 per cent of the costs associated with power, ongoing maintenance, and replacement of the fixtures.
Speaking on AM800's The Morning Drive, Mayor Drew Dilkens says the city has about 100 kilometres of active alleys.
"What city council said, if you want alley lights, no one has ever been against alley lights just there has to be a system to put these in and there has to be a process for residents to recommend and request these things," he says. "So now that city council has approved the alley lighting policy, residents who want lights in their alley can make that recommendation or that request."
Dilkens says residents will share the cost.
"Residents will pay the share of having the lights installed and then the city will pay for the hydro and maintain that system in perpetuity," he says.
Dilkens says residents wanting alley lights will need to make a request.
"It does make a lot of sense and it provides a pathway that if you think there is a security issue or some reason to have lights in your alley then lets work with the city and make that happen," says Dilkens.
City council passed the motion unanimously Monday.
Bortolin has been pressing council to pass an alley lighting policy for some time — saying public safety lighting should take priority over aesthetic lighting.
The Ward 3 councillor says now that a policy is in place, he will begin using ward funds to pay for alley lighting installations in targeted neighbourhoods.