St. Paul’s effort to make its streetlights more environmentally friendly has several residents saying the replacements might be working too well.

Complaints that the new LED streetlights are too bright has city leaders reassessing how it plans to update 8,000 of the city’s 38,000 streetlamps with new LED lights.

The move is expected to save more than $465,000 a year; the new lights consume half as much energy and last three times as long as current high-pressure sodium lights. Related Articles After man sentenced to 40 years in St. Paul murder, courthouse locked down and shots fired nearby

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St. Paul crews so far have refitted 5,500 of its streetlamps with the new lights.

“It changes the character of older St. Paul neighborhoods,” said Amy Gundermann, executive director of the Lexington-Hamline Community Council.

The older streetlights are more ambient compared to the new LED lights, which are “more direct, much more in your face,” adds David Johnston, co-chair of the Union Park District Council’s environment and parks committee.

The impact is that there are residents who are not spending as much time in their front yards as before, who are closing their blinds to the street, opponents of the lights add.

“Please don’t have us stick with these lights for 20 years,” said Gary Hornseth, longtime resident on Laurel Avenue, referencing an LED lamp’s life.

While the LED lights are described by residents as being much brighter compared to the older streetlights, a supervisor of the street lighting division of the Department of Public Works says otherwise.

“They’re a touch less,” John McNamara explained. City officials, though, are looking at trying a softer warm-white LED bulb.

Upon request, Public Works has also provided shields for street lights, which help direct light away from a certain location. Those shields reduce brightness by 50 percent, according to McNamara.

Gundermann says she’s heard mixed reviews, noting they shield only the light facing a resident’s home, not the lights facing the streets.

And for Hornseth, the light that’s troubling him is across the street. The shields “helped some but it really hasn’t solved the problem,” he said.

Despite the brightness, he says residents are supportive of the lighting change.

“I don’t think there’s anybody against LED lights per se,” Hornseth said. “What we want to see is the right LED light … and we’re not sure what they’re doing right now is right.”