Homebuilders more than got their way Monday night when the City Council loosened streetlight standards and scolded City Manager Vince Capell.

Streetlights on residential streets are now back to a pre-2004 standard — basically a light at every intersection, plus a light in between if the block is longer than 400 feet.

“Because of the way developments run, you’re very rarely going to have lights 400 feet apart,” said Todd Griffee, an attorney for the Greystone housing development, which initiated the push for the change.

Between 2004 and Monday, the residential standard was based on lumens on the ground rather than distance between lights. Developers said that standard amounted to about one light every 160 feet. Larger “arterial” and “collector” streets still will rely on the lumens standard.

The council voted 8-1 in favor of the change. The volunteer Planning Commission unanimously supported the change. Three residents of the Wilshire Place neighborhood, which has the pre-2004 standards, said they are pleased with the amount of lighting.

Councilman Bill Falkner commended Councilman Gary Roach for “staying on top of” the issue. Mr. Roach two weeks ago told Mr. Capell he was disappointed with the lack of compromise on the issue.

“I think a lot of this lies on city staff for failing to do what we said to do, and I thought that’s the way this was supposed to work,” Mr. Falkner said, referring to the council-manager relationship.

Donna Jean Boyer, who voted against the change, said the Planning Commission didn’t offer any compromise. But at the Planning Commission’s meeting, city staff said there could be no change to the proposal.

“We probably need to look at why the Planning Commission didn’t have (any alternatives),” Councilman Mike Hirter responded to Ms. Boyer. “Because staff presented only one proposal to them.”

Mr. Roach said city staff should put more emphasis on getting things done instead of finding reasons not to. He went further to suggest that city staff purposely proposed the pre-2004 standard of 400 feet to give council a bad option.

“I think 400 feet was put on the agenda thinking it would be voted down,” Mr. Roach said. “It kind of backfired.”

Mr. Capell then asked for a chance to respond. He said he had left a meeting when council told staff to compromise on the light issue, and he repeated Ms. Boyer’s suggestion that developers had declined to compromise with the Planning Commission.

He also accused council members of holding meetings with developers without inviting staff. He also told Mr. Roach that the earlier meeting in question “wasn’t even your committee” — implying that the issue should’ve fallen under Ms. Boyer’s Planning & Zoning Committee instead of Mr. Roach’s Streets & Infrastructure Committee.

Mr. Roach shook his head and disagreed.

“It’s probably irrelevant whose committee it was,” Mr. Hirter replied.

Mr. Hirter, Mr. Roach, Mr. Falkner, Mayor Ken Shearin, Roger Baker, Mike Bozarth, Barbara LaBass and Joyce Starr voted in favor of the change. Ms. Boyer was opposed.

Joe Blumberg can be reached at joeblumberg@npgco.com.