Seasonal Winter Lighting Policy C5004 - Banff, Alberta

POLICY Seasonal Winter Lighting

Policy C5004

Adopted by Council: 2018.10.22 Administrative Responsibility: Planning Council Resolution #: COU18-313 Last Review Date: 2018.10 New Modified by Resolution #: Next Review Date: 2020 Replaces:

1.0 POLICY The Town of Banff will provide seasonal winter lighting that enhances the resident and visitor nighttime experience in the darker winter months while respecting the environmental and economic objectives of the Banff Community Plan. 2.0 PURPOSE The Town of Banff Seasonal Winter Lighting Policy aims to enhance visitor’s nighttime experience and to promote Banff’s reputation as a year-round tourist destination, primarily during winter months. The policy identifies architecturally significant structures, open spaces and streets for special lighting consideration. Additionally, the policy intends to promote improvements to safety and connectivity throughout the public realm while promoting improvements to gateways to enhance a sense of arrival. The policy aims to elevate the winter experience of visiting Canada’s foremost national park community by creating a lighting plan and creating clear lighting standards. The Seasonal Winter Lighting Policy intends to enhance a sense of place and community in the darker winter months. The policy focusses on urban spaces, and the lighting solutions reflect Banff’s identity, image, and Rocky Mountain environment. This policy also recognizes there is a need to better understand and manage the negative impacts of unnecessary lighting on the health and safety of humans, plants and wildlife. Future lighting will be energy efficient, warm in colour, subtle and glare-free to protect the night sky. Lastly, the purpose of the Seasonal Winter Lighting Policy is to ensure a consistent appearance and arrangement of lighting projects. The policy supports the development of Banff’s outdoor lighting, and functions as a planning tool. The implementation of the Seasonal Winter Lighting Policy is a long-term process, which will be revised as the Town’s structure develops.

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Policy C5004 – Seasonal Winter Lighting Policy

3.0 DEFINITIONS Correlated Colour Temperature (CCT): The colour appearance of white light emitted from electric light sources. The CCT rating is defined in degrees Kelvin (K) and refers to the general warmth or coolness of its appearance. Glare: The sensation produced by a bright source within the visual field that is sufficiently brighter than the level to which the eyes are adapted to cause annoyance, discomfort or loss in visual performance and visibility; blinding light. The magnitude of glare depends on such factors as the size, position, brightness and the source, and on the brightness level to which the eyes are adapted. Objects near a source of glare are difficult to see. Light-Emitting Diode (LED): semiconductor device that emits visible light when an electric current passes through it. Light pollution: Any adverse effect of manmade light. Often used to denote urban sky glow. Lumen: Unit of luminous flux; the flux emitted within solid angle by a point source with a uniform luminous intensity of one candela. One footcandle is one lumen per square foot. One lux is one lumen per square meter. Seasonal Winter Lighting: Temporary lighting installed and operated in conjunction with the winter season, typically November 15th to February 15.

4.0 SCOPE The scope of the Seasonal Winter Lighting Policy extends throughout the Town site with emphasis on key areas for seasonal winter lighting. Historically the installation of seasonal winter lighting has been a combined effort between the Destination Marketing Organization (Banff & Lake Louise Tourism) and the Town of Banff. This policy seeks to provide direction to align the actions of both groups by, preferred lighting types, standards for equipment and installation, identifying proposed lighting locations and proposed lighting displays. Appendix B provides a listing of proposed projects, Appendix C shows the location of proposed projects, and Appendix E provides reference photos to guide future projects. 5.0 RESPONSIBILITIES

5.1 The Town Manager is responsible for the overall implementation of this policy, and the communication of such to Parks Canada.

5.2 The Town of Banff is responsible for installation and removal of some winter lights, and

storage of winter lights.

5.3 Both the Town of Banff and the Destination Marketing Organization shall update the winter lighting inventory (Appendix D) when new purchases are made to allow for tracking of energy consumption and lumen output.

5.4 The Town Manager or designate is responsible for ensuring lighting displays align with

this policy.

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5.5 The Town Manager or designate may vary the requirements of the policy under the following circumstances:

a) When a design situation, issue or circumstance is not addressed in this policy; and,

b) When special local circumstances affecting safety, security, light pollution, or aesthetic and heritage considerations require a departure from the policy.

6.0 STANDARDS

6.1 Lighting Equipment Design and Performance Requirements a) Lighting Colour

Lighting shall have a correlated colour temperature (CCT) of ≤2,700 K. As shown in Appendix A, soft warm white light or amber is the preferred option. Occasionally, the use and mixture of coloured light can be combined effectively for feature lighting. When using different colours of light, the colours of landscape elements and building materials should be taken into consideration. In addition, the amount of blue light emitted will be minimized as much as possible as this colour brightens the night sky and is disruptive to human and animal biological functions.

b) Lighting Technology The use of sensor technologies, photocells, timers or other means to activate and deactivate lighting with regards to section 6.1.d is required. For string lighting that is unshielded from the night sky, the lumen output per bulb shall be ≤ 15 lumens for new purchases. LED string lighting used in moderation do not substantially contribute to light pollution issues and are generally excluded from model lighting ordinances for this reason. Higher lumen output is permitted for focussed feature lighting projects where care has been taken to shield the night sky from light pollution (i.e. architectural uplighting beneath an awning). The International Dark Sky Association and-Illumination Engineering Society created a Model Lighting Ordinance (IDA-IES 2011) which excludes temporary lighting where individual lamps are less than 10 watts and 70 lumens. Lighting projects involving lamps which are more than 70 lumens (possibly project 8 in Appendix C) shall strictly follow lighting distribution and control requirements.

c) Lighting Distribution

Whenever possible, lighting shall be directed downwards, and shielded from the night sky. This could include locating lights beneath architectural features such as awnings and canopies, and/or the use of shielded bulbs or fixtures.

d) Lighting Control Requirements Controls shall be provided that automatically deactivate all seasonal outdoor lighting when sufficient daylight is available using a control device or system such as a photoelectric switch, time switch or equivalent functions from a programmable lighting controller, building automation system or lighting energy management system. Additionally, seasonal winter lighting should be deactivated at 1:00am whenever possible until dusk of the following day to reduce light pollution, energy consumption and dark sky impact when few people are out and the social benefits of lighting are minimal.

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e) Lighting Installation on Trees In order to protect our urban forest as well as wildlife entering the Town site, lighting installations on trees shall follow these guidelines:

a) No lights are to be attached to scaffold limbs of less than 1” in diameter on any tree species.

b) At no time are trees to be climbed to install lights; only the use of a free-standing ladders or scaffold lifts is permitted.

c) Leave slack in the garden tie tape / zip tie to accommodate branch movement. No wire is to be used to attach lights to tree scaffold branches.

d) At no time are trees to be pruned/manipulated for light installations. e) No lights may be installed on trees before November 15 and after March 15

to help prevent wildlife entanglement issues. f) To prevent wildlife entanglement issues, any lights strung across open gaps

shall be higher than 2m in height. In unfenced areas accessible to wildlife, string lighting on trees should be done conservatively.

g) Cords for power are to match trunk / tree colour as closely as possible h) Cords are not to run loosely on the ground surface.

f) General Procedures

a) Should a winter storm or vandalism happen to the light displays the Town of Banff reserves the right to remove the display in trees impacted, or BLLT will be required to have the contractor return to repair/remove

b) Final site locations, installation dates are to be relayed to Grounds with before and after installation site pictures taken and forwarded to our records.

7.0 RELATED POLICIES/DOCUMENTS

7.1 The Banff Community Plan 7.2 The Land Use Bylaw, section 8.22.0 7.3 Street Lighting Policy 7.4 Trails Lighting Policy 7.5 Land Use Bylaw Schedule “B” – Banff Design Guidelines

8.0 ATTACHMENTS

8.1 Appendix A: Colour Temperature Reference Photo 8.2 Appendix B: Future Lighting Projects 8.3 Appendix C: Winter Lighting Projects 8.4 Appendix D: Seasonal Winter Lighting Inventory 8.5 Appendix E: Proposed Project Reference Photos

This policy shall be in effect on the date it is approved by resolution of Council.

On original On original Karen Sorensen

Mayor Robert Earl

Town Manager

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Appendix A

2700 K 3500 K 5500 K

Colour temperature comparison of white light

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Appendix B – Future Lighting Projects Where Lighting type Priority Banff Avenue East Entrance Gateway

lighting/seasonal tree lighting

1

Mount Norquay West Entrance (15 deciduous trees, 6 coniferous trees)

Gateway lighting/seasonal tree lighting

1

East Boulevard on Banff Avenue (15 trees)

Seasonal tree lighting 1

West entrance near Brewster – 12 blue spruce


Lynx Street pole motifs Street pole mounts 1 Large conifer tree at the Banff Community High School Field


Cave Avenue Street Pole Motifs Street pole mounts 3 Bear Street string lighting String lights 2 Wolf Street string lighting String lights 2 Caribou Street string lighting String lights 2 Buffalo Street string lighting String lights 2 Central Park Gazebo lighting,

seasonal tree lighting 2

Tunnel Mountain Intersection TBD 3 Tunnel Mountain Road Street Pole motifs

Street pole mounts 3

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Appendix C – Winter Lighting Plan

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Appendix D. Seasonal winter lighting inventory (in progress)

Number of strands

Average bulbs per strand

Bulb Type Lumen Output (per bulb)

Wattage (per strand) Energy Draw (W) Lumen output (per strand)

Destination Marketing Organization Inventory C6 Warm White True North 190 85 LED 6 7 1368 510 C6 Novelty wire darker yellow. 60 70 LED 5 5 288 350 C5 warm white 225 75 LED 10 7 1620 750 C6 Multi-colour for church 15 85 LED 6 7 108 510 C5 Red 15 75 LED 8 7 108 600 C9 Glass Bulbs warm white 165 63 LED 22 47 7734 1375 TOB Operations Inventory C6 Warm white 64 120 LED 4.3 7.2 461 516

Appendix E – Proposed Project Reference Photos

Location Reference Proposed Lighting Mount Norquay West Entrance (15 deciduous trees)

1. Deciduous trees in warm LED lights.

Mount Norquay West Entrance (6 coniferous trees)

2. Coniferous trees in warm LED lighting.

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Location Reference Proposed Lighting East Boulevard on Banff Avenue (15 trees)

West entrance near Brewster – 12 blue spruce

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Location reference Proposed Lighting Cave Avenue - street pole mounts

Lynx Street - street pole mounts

Tunnel Mountain Road - street pole mounts

3 “Celebration” motifs for Germering Winter Light Festival

4. MK Illumination - Firework Pole

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Location reference Proposed Lighting Central Park

5. Leavenworth Washington, Christmas Lighting Festival

Tunnel Mountain Intersection

To be determined. Lighting at this intersection should be conservative and as dimly lit as possible as Tunnel Mountain Road and Tunnel Mountain Drive are Zone 1 and Zone 0 lighting levels (respectively).

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Location Reference Example of Proposed Lighting Bear Street

6. Bear Street

Wolf Street Caribou Street Buffalo Street

Railway Lands - Queen’s Willows

9. Tree Uplighting

7. Seasonal string lights in a nighttime alleyway 8. Terrazzo Lights on Mill Street, Nevada City

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Location Reference Example of Proposed Lighting Banff Community High School

10 A feature Christmas tree in Helsinki, Finland

Seasonal Winter Lighting Policy C5004 - Banff, Alberta

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