An owner asked for a new street light. How does our HOA board decide and who pays?

By OurHOA · General information · Revised October 20, 2026

How an HOA board handles an owner's request for a new street light: who would own it, utility install costs and monthly rates, neighbor notice and the vote.

Part of the HOA board handbook: vendors, projects and upkeep.

The short answer

Treat the request as a small capital project with a ten-year bill attached, not a favor to one household. Find out who would own the light. Get the utility's offer in writing: the upfront charge, the monthly charge and the contract term. Walk the spot after dark and tell the neighbors whose windows face it. Then vote at an open, noticed meeting and put the monthly cost in the budget. If the street was dedicated to the city, the association usually has no part to play. Point the owner to the city's service request line and stop there. Utility rules, state law and your own declaration all shape the answer. This guide is education, not legal advice, and the rates below are examples from published tariffs that change. Get current numbers from your own utility.

Figure out who would own the new pole

Start with what you already have. The association's electric bills and any lighting agreement on file show whether the existing lights are utility-owned on a monthly lighting rate, association-owned on a metered account, or not on the association's account at all because the city pays for them. A new light normally follows the same arrangement as the lights around it. If the association owns its lights, a new one is a contractor job: trenching, conduit, a base, a pole and a fixture, plus the electrician's connection to an existing circuit. Add it to the reserve study once it is in. If the utility owns the lights, the utility designs and installs the new one, and the association signs a service agreement. Our guide on who pays for streetlights in an HOA covers how each arrangement splits energy, repairs and replacement.

What utilities charge, with real examples

Texas, Oncor territory. Oncor's delivery tariff offers street lighting to homeowners' associations where no other government has signed a street light agreement for those lights, billed through the association's retail electric provider. Under the revision effective June 1, 2026, the monthly delivery charge for an Oncor-owned LED lamp of 55 watts or less is $13.52 for a cobra head and $11.74 for a post-top, before riders and the provider's own charges. The standard cobra head on a 35-foot wood pole served overhead needs no contribution in aid of construction. The association pays the difference for anything beyond that standard. The agreement runs an initial ten years, then year to year. Florida, FPL territory. Rate schedule LT-1 covers streets, roadways and common areas, public or privately owned. FPL charges a contribution in aid of construction for new distribution facilities, less four times the added annual non-fuel revenue, plus the extra cost of underground service and any work around sprinklers, paving or sod, and that payment is due before construction. The agreement runs ten years and then renews in five-year terms unless the customer gives written notice at least 90 days before the term ends. FPL's October 2026 rate sheet adds monthly charges such as $1.65 per fixture for maintenance and $6.67 for a standard wood pole on top of the fixture charge. Remove lights early and the association may owe the net book value of the equipment plus removal. Colorado, Xcel territory. Xcel's street lighting schedule is open only to municipalities and to associations with legal authority to tax, which leaves out most HOAs. The commercial outdoor area lighting schedule, CAL, covers lighting a customer's own property from an existing company wood pole: $13.52 a month for a 39-watt LED, with a 12-month minimum. It excludes public streets, highways and parking lots, so ask Xcel in writing which schedule fits a private HOA street. The sheets carry 2021 effective dates, so confirm current rates. Cooperatives and city-owned utilities set their own rules. Ask for the tariff sheet by name.

Do the ten-year math before the vote

The upfront number gets the attention. The monthly number is the real cost. One Oncor cobra head at $13.52 a month is $1,622.40 over a ten-year agreement before riders, retail charges or any rate increase. Add an upfront contribution if the light needs a new pole line or underground feed. Then compare that total with the alternatives: trimming a tree that blocks an existing light, moving a fixture, or a brighter head on a pole the association already pays for. Put these questions to the utility in writing. Which rate schedule applies to us, and which fixture types does it offer? What is the upfront charge for this location, and what does it include? What is the monthly charge per fixture and per pole? What is the initial term and the renewal term? What do we owe if we ask you to remove the light early? Who receives outage reports, and how fast are repairs made? If the requesting owner offers to pay the upfront charge, that is fine, but the monthly bill still lands on the association for the full term. Say so in the board's reply.

Walk it at night and tell the neighbors

Before deciding, one director should stand at the proposed spot after dark with the utility's suggested pole location marked. Look at which bedroom windows would face the light, which trees will block it in summer, and whether the dark stretch is a real hazard, such as a curve, mailboxes or a pool gate, or just a dim block. Send notice to every home within sight of the pole. A version you can adapt: 'An owner has asked the association to add a street light near 22 Cedar Lane, between the mailboxes and the pool entrance. The utility proposes a pole on the common-area strip on the east side of the street. The board will discuss the request at its meeting on November 12 at 7 p.m. at the clubhouse. If the light would affect your home, please tell the board in writing by November 8.' In coastal Florida, check the county or city sea turtle lighting ordinance first. The state's model ordinance for marine turtle protection is in Florida Administrative Code chapter 62B-55, and FPL's tariff offers a credit for lights turned off during nesting season. If a neighbor later complains, our guide on handling a complaint about glare from an HOA streetlight lists fixes from cheapest to most expensive.

Who decides, and the motion to use

Read the declaration first, since it can limit spending or require an owner vote above a dollar amount. In Colorado, section 38-33.3-302(1) gives an association the power to make contracts and incur liabilities, to regulate the use and modification of common elements, and to cause additional improvements to be made as part of the common elements, subject to the declaration. In Texas, Property Code section 209.0051(h) lets a board act without a meeting in many cases, but not to construct a new capital improvement other than repairing, replacing or enhancing an existing one. A new light is safest treated as that kind of improvement, voted at an open meeting noticed under section 209.0051(e). In Florida, follow the meeting notice rules in your bylaws and chapter 720, and take the vote in an open board meeting. Sample motion: 'Move that the association sign the utility's street lighting agreement for one LED cobra head at the pole location shown in the utility's design dated October 30, with an upfront charge of $0 and a monthly charge of $13.52 for an initial term of ten years, and that the treasurer add the charge to the common area utilities line of the budget.' If the board says no, answer the owner in writing with the reason and the numbers. 'Not worth $1,600 over ten years for a block the existing light already reaches' is a better answer than silence.

A sample timeline

Week 1: acknowledge the request in writing and pull the lighting agreement and recent electric bills. Weeks 2 to 4: ask the utility for a design and written quote. A director walks the location at night. Weeks 4 to 6: send notice to nearby owners and put the item on the next board agenda. Board meeting: discuss, take comments, vote and record the term and cost in the minutes. After the vote: sign the agreement, pay any upfront charge, and expect the utility to schedule installation on its own timetable. File the signed agreement where the next treasurer will find it, with the term end date on the board calendar.

Mistakes that cost more than the light

Signing a lighting agreement without reading the term. A ten-year contract with automatic five-year renewals outlives most boards. Approving a light because one director lives on that street. Disclose it and let the others vote. Skipping the neighbor notice. The household with the pole in front of its bedroom will hear about it either way, and it is better from the board. Forgetting the budget line. A new monthly charge that shows up mid-year makes the utilities line run over, and owners notice. Assuming the utility will move or remove the light for free later. Most tariffs charge for removal or early termination, so decide on the location once.

Sources

These guides are general education for HOA boards and residents, not legal, tax, or financial advice. Rules vary by state and by your community's governing documents - check with a professional for your situation.

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