As the residential subdivision of Harmony gets set to enter its fourth phase of development, questions were being raised by Rocky View County (RVC) councillors and members of the general public about Harmony Developments Inc.’s commitment to dark sky principles at a special meeting on Nov. 1.
Harmony Developments Inc. was seeking approval from council at the public hearing to exempt its show homes from having to obtain additional residential development permits under the current Direct Control Bylaw that the subdivision falls under.
One letter received in opposition at the public hearing from a member of the public only referred to as “Keven” stated:
“I received notification of an application by Harmony to amend their DC‐129 Bylaw,” the letter reads. “It appears this circulation deals only with show homes. I suggest the County be proactive and, while the bylaw is open for amendment, take the time to also define dark sky, bright light, etc. in response to the ongoing complaints about the persisting offensive lighting that Harmony inflicts on non‐Harmony ratepayers.”
Under the County’s Land Use Bylaw, and particularly in relation to Harmony Conceptual Scheme, the Harmony subdivision is required to conform to RVC’s dark sky policy. The County Plan states Harmony must maintain dark skies by ensuring dark sky principles are incorporated when developing or amending area structure plans.
It also requires public and business lighting in outdoor areas to be downward directed, and conform to the Land Use Bylaw. It also strongly encourages residents to use downward directed lighting.
Harmony and also future developments are required to conform to the policy, which was updated in July 2021 to help prevention excess light pollution at night.
According to the International Dark-Sky Association, excess light at night disrupts the circadian rhythm – the biological clock – of both nature and humans, and can have some long-term health impacts. Several municipal governments across the province have incorporated dark sky initiatives in the development approval process in recent years as public concern over this issue has increased, particularly when it comes to street lighting.
The public comment submitted to council criticizing the developers for not conforming to dark sky principles triggered further questioning on this issue from RVC council representatives, Div. 2 Coun. Don Kochan and Div. 1 Coun. Kevin Hanson.
Representatives of Bordeaux Properties, which is one of the partner companies involved in Harmony Developments Inc., were on hand to address these concerns.
Bordeaux President and CEO Birol Fisekci said Harmony Developments Inc. was making strides to meet the County’s expectations on the issue, and had installed non-standard, specialized lighting stands to reduce light pollution emanating from the subdivision.
“That’s what we have in Harmony today,” he said. “It’s a low impact, or dark standard, light standard in Harmony.”
However, Fisekci admitted, there was one major exception they were aware of – light coming off of the LaunchPad driving range in Harmony.
Fisekci said when the LaunchPad range, which is owned by Mickelson National, had been approved by Harmony Developments Inc. they made sure that the light from the course would not be reflecting back on residents in the community itself.
But they had neglected to take into account the impact on the adjacent roadway.
“The orientation of the drive range itself is pointed away from homes so there are no homes that are impacted… What we are seeing though, is because of some of the elevations of roadways maybe 2.5 or 3 kilometres away, Range Road 33… When you are travelling on that road, there is a period of time when the road elevation is high enough that when you are in your car you can see those lights.”
With that exception, Fisekci said Harmony Developments Inc. was committed to implementing its “own interpretation of dark-sky principles,” including in the community’s centre. He made the caveat, however, that with 4,500 homes planned at full expansion, there was no way they would be able to stop all light pollution.
“We will be refracting light into the sky,” he said, “but we will be very respectful in the principles that guide that lighting program.”
Fisecki was asked by Coun. Hanson what, if anything, they had done about the driving range’s light pollution.
Fisecki acknowledged given that Harmony Developments Inc. technically remained the landowners of the area the driving range was built on that they had some levers to pull with LaunchPad, and had been working with the company closely to reduce its light pollution impacts on the nearby road and coulees.
However, Fisecki confirmed that operationally, LaunchPad requires a lot of light to allow its camera system to track the balls in flight and project them onto a computer-based pro-golf course simulator.
“The LaunchPad facility is a unique challenge, to say the least, because it is actually not a refraction – it’s a direct beam of light,” stated Fisecki.
He said the company had changed the projection angles and lowered its six bright lights due to ongoing concerns about its violation of the County’s dark-sky policies, and had put a berm in place to additionally reduce some of the glare.
Fisecki said LaunchPad was contemplating adding additional screening onto that berm.
“But I want to emphasize,” he said, “after all those measures, we know definitively there will be a very short portion of (Range Road 33), that high-elevation stretch, where we are just not going to be able to eliminate the light.”
