Breckenridge Town Council approved conceptual changes to the town’s exterior lighting code that pertains to decorative lighting at its Tuesday, Nov. 28, meeting. 

While the Council approved changes related to bulb size, colored lights, and date and time limitations, an official ordinance to actualize a new code is still more than a month out. If the ordinance were to pass the code would not go into effect until 2025.

A code approved in 2010 allows for only warm- or soft-white decorative LED lighting. After a discussion, the Council directed staff to change the code to allow for colored LED lights.

“This is sort of readdressing what’s already in our code in which decorative lighting was put in place most recently in 2010,” said Julia Puester, Breckenridge’s assistant community development director.

Puester presented council with a list of proposed changes to the code at the meeting for council to consider. 

The Council expressed support for allowing colored lights and a maximum bulb size of 3 inches for exterior decorative lighting.

“I think it’s probably time to tweak a little bit to try and codify this,” said Council member Todd Rankin.

Previously town code permitted exterior decorative lighting from Nov. 1 until the end of ski season. Council is currently planning to change that to be from Nov. 1 to April 1. 

A lighting curfew was also approved, setting a 2 a.m. shutoff time for decorative lighting in Zone 1 and an 11 p.m. shutoff time for zones 2 and 3. Zone 1 covers the downtown commercial core area of Breckenridge and zones 2 and 3 account for residential areas outside of the town core. 

While the Council gave approval for these changes, an ordinance is still needed to solidify them in the town’s code. These changes will be shared on the town’s website, email blasts and social media to get the public informed. 

“We want to do a fact sheet as well so that people can kind of see the facts and then if they really want to dive into the details of the code, they can see it in there as well,” Puester said. 

She said staff will take informal public comment via email in December and in January, before passing the feedback along to the Council.

Puester anticipates getting additional information on the website in the beginning of December. 

Violations of these codes will likely not lead to fines, just a reminder from the town to get into compliance. 

“What we do initially is we visit the property and speak with the property owner and we give them a reasonable timeframe for compliance if there was a violation and usually that takes care of it and we don’t proceed with any additional actions,” Puester said. 

While discussing the changes, some Council members said they feel certain businesses have excessive lighting and questioned Puester over whether that could be regulated. 

Some members said they were in favor regulating what exterior decorative lights a property can display, saying this was especially a need in Breckenridge’s downtown area.

 “I really think that a consistent appearance throughout the core town is appropriate for our town,” Council member Jay Beckerman said. 

Council members expressed preliminary support for an ordinance that would limit the number of exterior decorative lights a property can display. 

No exact limitation was agreed upon at the meeting. How this limitation would appear in the exterior lighting code, if at all, is still in the works. 

Puester discussed a lighting code in Snowmass, which limits property owners to having exterior decorative lighting on just a third of the open space on their property. She noted this mostly applies to larger properties with lots of open space, and implementing a similar code in the core of Breckenridge may be challenging. 

“I think it’s difficult on buildings, because you have large buildings, and you have small buildings, so that’s sort of why my staff recommendation is we don’t do that,” said Puester.

She also mentioned that the Breckenridge Planning Commission had recommended that there be a limit on the number of decorative light fixtures on a home. This limit has also yet to be solidified.