A year after 76 streetlights were approved for Highway 89A — then reconsidered — Sedona City Council voted to put them back on the table.

On Wednesday, Aug. 13, council voted 4-2 to approve seven recommendations intended to increase safety and directed the Arizona Department of Transportation “to move forward with dark sky compliant continuous roadway lighting from Airport Road to Dry Creek Road.”

Mayor Rob Adams and Councilman Cliff Hamilton voted against the motion.

A year after 76 streetlights were approved for Highway 89A — then reconsidered — Sedona City Council voted to put them back on the table.

On Wednesday, Aug. 13, council voted 4-2 to approve seven recommendations intended to increase safety and directed the Arizona Department of Transportation “to move forward with dark sky compliant continuous roadway lighting from Airport Road to Dry Creek Road.”

Mayor Rob Adams and Councilman Cliff Hamilton voted against the motion.

According to City Manager Eric Levitt, the vote means ADOT will eventually install at least 76 streetlights along the corridor.

Although council had originally approved similar recommendations without the lighting June 10, on June 24, it voted to reconsider the issue, citing it didn’t have enough information.

On Tuesday, Aug. 12, ADOT sent a letter to the city, filling in blanks like timetables and funding. The letter contained 12 solutions that ADOT was hoping the city would approve as a package.

“We recommend the package, all of them as a package,” ADOT Flagstaff District Engineer John Harper said.

Since council didn’t approve all 12 solutions as a package, council questioned Harper whether ADOT would accept its motion.

“What we’re looking for tonight is acceptance of all 12 items in our letter, approval from council,” he said.

Of the 12 solutions, council approved to reduce the speed limit to 35 mph, install a traffic signal at Andante intersection, conduct pedestrian crosswalk warrant analysis, add width for bicycles, enforce all road user laws, enforce dark sky ordinances with businesses and educate on dark sky initiative and safety precautions.

Council did not accept solutions that involved installing continuous medians along Highway 89A, a refuge island for pedestrians or barriers to crossing.

“Looking at barriers, medians, I think there’s still the same questions there,” Councilman Dan Surber said. “What’s it going to be? Who’s paying for it? We don’t know.”

According to City Manager Eric Levitt, ADOT estimated medians cost around $1 million per mile.

In order to make left-hand turns, roundabouts would have to be installed at current intersections so vehicles could turn around. Roundabouts are double the width of traffic signals, so more land would have to be bought at all intersections.

“If you do roundabouts, you have to do land acquisition. It could range from $2 million on the low end to $10 to $12 million on the high end, depending on land acquisition,” Levitt explained.

The cost of medians would be on the city, Harper said, and the time frame would be 2011.

If roundabouts take up twice the width of the intersections, that’s a lot of land acquisition, Councilwoman Nancy Scagnelli said.

“To me, it’s starting to get out there in la la land to design that and do that in two years,” she said.

And how would the city pay for it, she asked. “Would we sell City Hall?”

“I quit,” Vice Mayor John Bradshaw said. “It’s not a simple solution.

“We have no idea what we’re talking about when it comes to medians/barriers until it goes through the Redevelopment Plan,” he said. Until the city determines its Redevelopment Plan in 2012, it’s not prudent to decide on medians.

Bradshaw and Councilman Marc Sterling agreed that dark sky compliant lights, similar to those in Flagstaff, are acceptable.

“Looking at the lights in Flagstaff, there is no light coming up from above,” Sterling said. “I want to protect our sky too.”

Adams pointed out that the 12 recommendations ADOT was asking council to approve originated from the Highway 89A Pedestrian Safety Committee.

“We decided collectively to have a committee make those decisions for us and they did,” he said. “And they did an excellent job.”

Adams backed the recommendations made by the safety committee, but “we cannot back a solution that we don’t know what it will cost or what the implications will be for us,” he said of the medians.

Hamilton wanted to approve ADOT’s list of 12 with continued negotiation with ADOT.

Although council was unsure how much medians and roundabouts may cost the city, those were details that could be worked out, he said.

“If we want to find excuses than we’ll make excuses, but if we want to get the job done, we could get the finances,” Hamilton said.

ADOT will discuss council’s motion and hopes to get back to the city by the end of August, Harper said.

Alison Ecklund can be reached at 282-7795, Ext. 125, or e-mail aecklund@larsonnewspapers.com