Port Orchard’s Planning Department has begun looking at options to replace the lights on Bay Street.

“We’re hoping to speak with some of the merchants on Bay Street before going along with any of the lighting solutions,” said James Weaver, the city’s development director. “We’re looking to attend one of the next Bay Street Merchant meetings to present options.”

The lighting situation definitely must be fixed, though, Weaver said.

“Most of the aging wood posts that mount the light fixtures have been identified as containing varying levels of rot,” according to a Planning Commission report from the city’s staff.

And the city’s staff would like to replace them more consistently, rather than in a piecemeal fashion.

“It will be uniform,” said Weaver, “and the entire downtown lighting will set the stage for future growth for the city.”

The city’s Planning Department presented three different lighting alternatives to the city’s Planning Commission last week.

The members unanimously favored the “The Ancestra Series,” which “presents a new twist on an old-fashioned design,”  according to Lumec, the company that sells them.

The commission also considered “The Domus Series,” described by Lumec as one of the company’s “most versatile luminaries.”

The design resembles the light posts in Paulsbo, planning commissioners noted.

The commissioners’ third option, “The Square Lantern Series,” was the only square option presented by the Planning Commission.

It showed that “the past and the present can, together, create an exquisite light,” according to Lumec.

The price tag for each of the fixtures is about equal.

“Each style of fixture has a cost of approximately $5,000,” according to an initial report from the Planning Department, “which includes two light fixtures (one at street level, one at pedestrian level), post and basket arm.”

The city currently has about 26 pedestrian-level lights, 26 street-level lights, two six-foot post lamps and two “cobra-style” lamps.

Port Orchard’s planning commissioners encouraged city staff to seek more council from the downtown merchants before going forward with their plans.

Gil Michael, a member of Port Orchard’s citizen Planning Commission, strongly encouraged the city’s planning staff to see feedback from local business and property owners before going forward with the project.

“Usually, the way it works with stuff like this is, the Planning Department will get hold of the Bay Street Merchants’ Association or hold an open house and send notifications to all the business owners and that kind of stuff and take in input,” Michael said, and “some of us will be there.”

The city’s staff planned to do that, said Stephanie Andrews, an assistant city planner, but they first wanted to consult the planning commission to get their opinion.