Banff's new public washrooms at Central Park will be even more environmentally friendly after council approved additional upgrades this week.
Banff's new public washrooms at Central Park will be even more environmentally friendly after council approved additional upgrades this week.
Banff's environmental coordinator Chad Townsend presented the proposed upgrades, worth $26,300, to council on Sept. 22.
Townsend said the 2014 capital project, which is currently under construction, has the potential for more water and energy efficient upgrades.
“We challenged the architect to come up with environmental upgrades we could incorporate and they came up with a few, ” he said.
While solar photovoltaic cells are already included in the design-build project, LED lights were recommended as an upgrade for an additional $13,000.
Townsend said the design of the building is unique and it will fit perfectly at the end of Bear Street. It includes a lot of windows, he said, which, while providing natural light, also has the potential for heat loss. He recommended an additional $7,500 for triple glazed windows. He also suggested $4,200 for a more efficient on-demand hot water system, similar to what is at Wolf Street.
“Because of the relatively low hot water demand … to have all that hot water sitting (in a hot water tank) would be wasteful, ” Townsend said.
The final upgrade was for waterless urinals instead of low flow ones for an extra $1,600.
Councillor Ted Christiansen expressed concerns the additional scope was not included in the original design build request for proposals.
“I'm just surprised it wasn't part of the initial specs, ” he said. “We asked for a washroom to suit a certain capacity. I would have thought we would have LED lighting and waterless urinals right up front. ”
Administration explained the RFP went out to companies with a project cost of $450,000 and it was up to respondents to include what they felt could be afforded within that price tag.
Coun. Stavros Karlos pointed out that while Banff has LEEDS silver standards for its municipal buildings, that does not include those under 500 square metres in size, so it didn't apply to this project.
“We didn't want to be putting LEEDS silver on sheds, ” Karlos said.
