Downtown developments in Fayetteville will continue with the recent approval to move forward with a Downtown Nighttime Landscaping Lighting Plan by the Fayetteville City Council at their work session held on March 4, 2024. 

At the session, City Council members were presented with a full lighting plan proposal by Cool Spring Downtown District (CSDD) President and CEO Bianca Shoneman. 

The proposal focused on two different potential projects for different lighting options for safety and artistic/aesthetic lighting that would be strategically placed at gateways throughout downtown. 

“The desired project is right within our municipal service district. We want to focus not only on safety lighting, but also on artistic and aesthetic lighting. We're looking for very specific design elements, something that's fine and catchy. But we also want to stay within budget,” said Shoneman. 

This item addresses a request received from Mayor Mitch Colvin to research and provide feedback with findings regarding downtown nighttime landscaping options, costs, and possible partnerships.

The item was presented to the Council Corridor Revitalization committee on Oct. 16, 2023. The recommendation of the committee was to explore a partnership with CSDD to present a master plan proposal to the committee.  

Shoneman shared that in November of 2023, the CSDD reached various companies for proposals and two companies submitted for approval; North Carolina based Optima Engineering and Miami based Lumen Tender.

“Back in November, we received two proposals on behalf of this effort. One of them was Optima engineering, which is based out of Raleigh, Asheville and Charlotte, North Carolina. They do really beautiful work. Their expertise is sort of corporate lighting. They tend to do a lot working in university medical environments,” said Shoneman. “Lumen Tender is a company based out of Miami, Florida, I would say Lumen Tender is much more creative. If you're looking for something that deals with using gateway lighting in more of an artistic form.” 

CSDD provided proposals to the Council Corridor Revitalization committee on Dec. 20, 2023.  The recommendation of the committee was to present the proposals to Council.

Online searches and reviews of comparable projects revealed a wide array of options available for this topic. Several different varieties of landscape lighting can be used to include but not limited to up-lighting, down-lighting, pathway lighting, built-in lighting, or spot lighting.  Additional considerations include options for color lighting and artistic flair. 

Upon further research, pricing for similar lighting projects ranged from $45,000 in San Jose, CA to 200,000 for a project developed in Hastings-on-Hudson, NY. 

For the two proposals brought to the council, Lumen Tender’s came to $75,000 and Optima engineering came to $67,000. 

Following the presentation, council members voted in agreement to move forward with a lighting feasibility study and will take the concepts through the budget process on July 1. 

More information on the topic can be found on the City of Fayetteville’s legislation page here.