2024-03-20 EDA Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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Memorandum Date: March 15, 2024 To: President and Economic Development Committee Members From: Mark Statz, PE – City Administrator/Engineer Subject: Accessory uses for Light Poles on Main Street This memo is to outline the restrictions on the use of the decorative light poles in the downtown, along Main Street. The decorative lights on Main Street were part of a Streetscaping project bid in conjunction with the reconstruction of CSAH 14 (Main Street) circa 2009. A choice was made, at the time, to select a thinner-walled pole in lieu of the more expensive poles with thicker metal. This meant that banners, planters and other accessories would not be able to be accommodated. A few years ago, the topic of adding banners to the poles came up again. With a brief examination of the technical specifications, I was able to feel comfortable adding small banners to the poles, using spring-loaded clamp-on brackets. The spring-loaded brackets allow the banners to flex in high-wind situations, minimizing torque on the poles. As you can imagine, a banner near the top of the 14-foot pole acts like a sail and can put surprisingly large forces on a pole, near the base; a concept called a “moment arm”. Below are the specifications for the poles that we have, showing the allowed Effective Projected Area (EPA) for various wind speeds. Each lamp head, banner and bracket has their own empirical data which establishes their EPA. The general idea is, when added together, the three elements (lamp head, banner and bracket), should not exceed the allowable EPA for the pole. To make a long and complicated story short, the existing banners, with their spring- loaded brackets are close to maxing out the EPA for these poles. Adding larger banners or other accessories to these poles will need careful examination to avoid damaging the poles during a wind storm.