The city has revised the plan to light White Rock Lake and will present a lighting proposal to the public this Thursday, June 11 at 5 p.m. at Winfrey Point.

You may recall that this has been an intensely debated topic since the lights started going up last summer. Around that time, the already funded project was stalled by a group of neighbors who hated the lights, which weren’t entirely attractive or environmentally responsible. 

Sign up for our newsletter

* indicates required

So … following that outcry, the city reassessed its plan … some people liked the new plan some people didn’t … there were meetings … and more meetings and the city decided to go back to the drawing board.

The last time I spoke with Darren Boruff, the Park Board member helping to negotiate this project, he told me that he and other city staffers are getting a lot of e-mails and input from people who feel strongly about lights at the lake. He says there are thousands of runners and cyclists who use the lake early and after dark and many of them are asking for more consistent lighting along the trail. But there are also the residents and stakeholders who want to preserve a very specific environment out there. “It is a unique environment and I am sensitive to that,” Boruff has said.

The public will get a chance to see what the City staff and their environmental lighting experts came up with at this week’s meeting — and here’s a hint: these meetings are worth attending for the sheer entertainment value — I mean, they seem to bring out the reality TV show attitudes in even some seemingly rational members of the community.

So, yeah, I’ll be there, if I am not somewhere else.