This suburb wanted a marquee water tower. It got one that could ‘signal a space station.’

A giant lightsaber? The Bat-Signal? A super-sized night light?

No, Robbinsdale residents say, that’s just their city’s new water tower.

“Imagine you’re looking across a dark city landscape out in front of you, and then all of a sudden there’s this beam coming out of the ground,” said Mayor Brad Sutton, who could see the lit-up tower from his home across the lake. “You could literally signal a space station from here.

“It’s almost like you could hear the light. It’s so, so bright.”

So bright, in fact, that days after the lights illuminated Robbinsdale last spring, the city shut them off in response to neighbors' complaints.

Now city leaders are debating whether they can make any use of the lights — chosen years ago to turn the water tower into a shining marquee to celebrate the city — or let the landmark go dark.

On Monday night, City Council members and about 30 neighbors gathered on the street to look up at the water tower near W. Broadway, County Road 81 and Hwy. 100. They were there to view the lights in brilliant variations: turned to full power, dimmed and in different colors, to see if any options could be more bearable.

Some who drive by the lights on the highway are arguing for the city to keep them, saying they’re a cool, stand-out feature for the city. Others living next to the tower want to see the lights sold.

Neighbor Miles Toth has been gathering signatures on a petition begging the city to turn off the lights, a frustration plaguing his life over the past year.

“I now cannot go by other water towers without saying, ‘Hey, that’s not lit up! Lino Lakes, they’ve got a beautiful mural on theirs. It’s not lit up!” Toth said.

“Drive around any city, they all have water towers near the highway. It’s a badge of honor. We get that,” he said. “But you don’t need to light it up.”

Water towers are useful. They are also landmarks. Often the tallest structures in rural and suburban communities, water towers can become a beloved part of a town’s identity.

There’s the smiley-faced water tower in Freeport and the ear of corn in Rochester. The city of Lindström sold tiny replicas of its charming coffee pot-shaped water tower to raise funds to repair it so it releases steam again.

A shining new water tower near the highway was viewed as a chance to add a big welcome sign for Robbinsdale, City Manager Tim Sandvik said.

“It was an opportunity to show off Birdtown” he said.

Building a new water tower was a notable moment for Robbinsdale, which retired two historic towers, including the 86-year-old one downtown. The city is now planning to build a second new tower.

It’s not the first city to use LED lights to make their landmark more memorable.

Similar lights adorn water towers in St. Cloud and Faribault, which has a water tower lit up in bright colors recognizing holidays. Faribault keeps a calendar on its website with the lighting schedule and takes submissions for special requests.

In Robbinsdale, Sandvik said the lights in the “pre-design phase looked great.”

After the water tower was completed last March, the white lights shooting up from surrounding poles “were turned on at full blast,” Sandvik said, illuminating the stem and bowl.

City staff didn’t have many options for adjusting the lights at first, only to switch them on or off. And when they came on much brighter than expected, they listened to residents' concerns and shut the system down.

“It was short lived,” Sandvik said.

He said the city at the end of last year upgraded to a system with more controls, including the ability to dim the lights, change colors and more easily turn them off.

He said the city spent about $120,000 on the lights and controls.

“It would be gorgeous if it was out in the middle of a field somewhere,” Sutton said. “It would be amazing. But smack dab in a residential area? Gosh, even with the colors, they’re too bright.”

Neighbors had started to grow used to the idea that a new water tower was being built feet away from their homes. They said construction wasn’t too distracting. And some looked forward to stronger water pressure.

But then the lights turned on.

All of a sudden, glowing, white light radiated into bedrooms, reflected off the falling snow and illuminated nearly every corner of the peaceful neighborhood in northern Robbinsdale.

“You can see it from everywhere,” neighbor Jeanne Mcgovern-Acuña said. “I’d be coming up Highway 100 or over in Crystal or even in New Hope, and you could see it. Which I think was the plan, but for those of us who live in this neighborhood, it’s a quality of life issue.”

Toth called it “the definition of light pollution.”

Brian Nygard, a Robbinsdale firefighter whose house is directly in front of the water tower, said even with blackout curtains, it created a “border of gleaming light” in his bedroom.

The window in his son’s room, he said, faces the water tower: “He doesn’t need a light in his room anymore. It’s crazy.”

Standing outside the water tower on Monday night, neighbors invited council members into their homes and yards to see how the lights blast their properties.

City staff demonstrated the lights at full power, then dimmed to 25% and 10%. Staff tried out a variety of colors, bright reds, blues and greens, and a rainbow display.

“Even at 10 percent, it’s way too bright,” Toth said. “It was casting shadows on my garage.”

Toth and Nygard are happy to see the council take the issue seriously enough to come out and hold a meeting at the water tower.

It was an old City Council that approved the new water tower. Since then, the council has turned over with all new members. And Sutton was sworn in as mayor in January.

The first public comments he heard at his first council meeting? Concerns about the water tower lights.

“I know all the best intentions were there when the city built this,” Sutton said. “I know the city cares and resident voices really matter.”