Town encouraging businesses to consider heating sidewalks

Is it cheaper than hauling the snow away in trucks?

The issue of how much to encourage local business owners to “warm” the sidewalks in front of their shops was debated by the Crested Butte Town Council on Monday night. In the end, the council instructed the staff to encourage property owners to at least take advantage of the current sidewalk repair project to lay the tubes for heating the concrete in the future.

Brick Oven Pizzeria co-owner Brian Schneider told the council that heating the sidewalks in the business district was a huge benefit to the town. “I know this is a last-minute idea with the sidewalk repair project starting this week, but it would be great if the town could provide incentives to get the property owners to at least begin the steps to heating the sidewalks in town. How many people fall and injure themselves on the icy sidewalks every winter? I think the town should provide an incentive to get the business owners to at least put the tubing in while the sidewalk is torn up,” Schneider said.
Schneider said he had read recent studies that show heating the sidewalks could be more environmentally friendly than the carbon footprint created by hauling the snow away with machines and trucks and extra manpower. He said his kitchen is designed to take advantage of heat generated from the restaurant’s refrigeration system to heat the outdoor patio.
“It’s crazy to not at least heat the sidewalk in front of the post office,” he said. “People go down there all winter. It’s very dangerous. Dry sidewalks are good for the community. We are a tourist town, after all.”
Rodney Due, the town Public Works director, told the council he has put the word out to the local business owners about the opportunity to take advantage of the town’s sidewalk repair project. “We have sent letters and talked to the owners so they should be aware,” he said. “We are going full-speed right now. But if a business is interested in heating the walkways they have the opportunity. We are trying to keep open contact with all the businesses. But we aren’t going to slow down the concrete pours. We need to get that done in this short window to complete the project.”
Due emphasized it would be very cost-effective for a business to lay the heating tubes beneath the concrete now as opposed to having to tear up and rebuild a sidewalk in the future.
Councilperson Chris Ladoulis said “warming” the sidewalks could add to safety and wanted the town to again reach out to give property owners the option of putting heating tubes in now. He said if the entire heating operation wasn’t put into effect immediately, at least the infrastructure would be ready to go in the future.
“The town does have an energy plan and I’m not sure how this dovetails with it,” said Councilman Roland Mason. “I’m in favor of heating the sidewalks for safety reasons. I would like to see the data Brian mentioned about it being a smaller carbon footprint.”
“I don’t have data on either side so I can’t speak to it,” said sidewalk heating opponent and Councilperson Glenn Michel. “I would be surprised if that was the case in most circumstances. But if a property owner wants to put the tubes in now, it will certainly save future energy costs, as opposed to starting from scratch once the concrete is already laid.”
Michel had voted against the sidewalk repair project two weeks ago based on his opposition to outdoor heating, noting the inefficiency of heating sidewalks and the detrimental impact it has on climate change.
While the council did not want to spend the money to pay for the tubing, it did ask the town staff to come up with a per-foot cost of laying the tubing and to re-contact property owners with the information to give them another opportunity to start the process relatively cheaply. The staff will also investigate any tap fee ramifications of laying the tubes and create a deferral fee process if tap fees are required to lay the tubing.
Todd Crossett, town manager, will report the progress to the council at a future meeting.