Exterior Lighting Victoria, BC: Four Peaks Power at Folk Townhomes New Development

There's a corner in Saanich that looks a little different from the rest of the neighbourhood. At Richmond and Allenby, a development called Folk is quietly rewriting what residential living looks like on Vancouver Island and Four Peaks Power had the privilege of being part of it.

This wasn't just another townhouse project. And the lighting wasn't just another job.

The project's path to approval made local headlines before a single fixture went into the ground. As the Times Colonist reported, Saanich council unanimously approved the rezoning for a nine-unit townhouse complex at 2859 Richmond Road with no on-site parking a first for the municipality. Developer Urban Thrive went through a public hearing process that drew both strong support and genuine concern from neighbours worried about street parking and the project's scale. In the end, the council sided with the vision, calling it a pilot for the kind of missing-middle housing and climate-forward planning that Saanich wants to see more of.

So what exactly did Urban Thrive set out to build? A closer look at the Folk project itself reveals a development built around a genuinely different set of priorities from those of the townhouse projects most of us are used to.

What Makes Folk Different

Walk past most townhouse developments in Greater Victoria, and you'll notice the same thing: driveways, garage doors, asphalt. A significant portion of any given site is dedicated to moving cars around and storing them once they've stopped. It's the default model, and most developers don't think twice about it.

Folk challenged that default at every level.

The development eliminated on-site resident parking entirely. That land, the square footage that would typically have been paved for vehicles, was redirected toward something else: pedestrian walkways, private outdoor spaces, community gathering areas, mature tree retention, and new planting. Over half the site is dedicated to green space rather than vehicle infrastructure. In a city where every square foot matters, that's a meaningful choice.

In place of parking stalls, residents have secure bike storage, cargo-bike parking, e-bike charging, transit access, and on-site Modo car-share vehicles. The result is one of the first modern family-oriented car-free townhouse developments built in Canada in decades. Nine homes replace what was previously a single detached house. The units range from one to three bedrooms, offering the kind of missing middle housing that established neighbourhoods like Oak Bay genuinely need.

The homes themselves are zero-emission residences, heated and cooled by heat pumps, built for energy efficiency and designed to minimize transportation emissions through a car-free model. It's a project that takes sustainability seriously at every layer: the building envelope, the energy systems, and how residents actually move through their lives.

Why Exterior Lighting Matters More Here

Here's something worth understanding about a project like Folk: the absence of cars fundamentally changes how lighting functions on a site.

In a conventional townhouse development, residents typically move between their garage and their front door. Vehicle headlights contribute meaningfully to nighttime visibility. Common areas are often afterthoughts because residents aren't expected to use them much after dark.

Folk flips that entirely.

When there are no cars, pathways become the primary circulation network. Green spaces and shared outdoor areas aren't incidental; they're the whole point. Residents are expected to walk, cycle, and gather throughout the site at all hours. Evening use of outdoor spaces isn't a bonus feature; it's part of what the development was designed to encourage.

That changes what good lighting means. Pedestrian-scale lighting at Folk has to do real work: it needs to make pathways feel safe and legible after dark, signal that outdoor spaces are genuinely welcoming in the evening, support the community-focused design philosophy at the heart of the project, and enhance the experience of the green spaces that define the development.

In a conventional project, lighting is largely decorative and functional at the building perimeter. Here, lighting is infrastructure. It's woven into how the development actually operates and how residents experience their home at night.

Four Peaks Power's Role

Four Peaks Power provided the exterior lighting and electrical infrastructure for Folk, installing the systems that bring the site to life after the sun goes down.

For our team, this kind of project is genuinely exciting. We work across a wide range of residential and commercial jobs in Greater Victoria, from dental offices to beachside homes to new construction builds. But Folk stood out. Being asked to contribute to something that's redefining what residential development can look like in this city isn't something we take lightly.

The work itself required thinking carefully about the purpose each fixture serves.

Where a pathway light sits, how it's angled, what it illuminates and what it doesn't in a pedestrian-first environment those decisions have direct consequences for how residents experience the space. The goal was lighting that felt intentional and welcoming rather than institutional, that supported the green space rather than fighting against it, and that held up to the quality of the design vision the project was built around.

From the rough-in to final fixture installation, our crew worked methodically through the site. The kind of pride that goes into a project like this shows in the details: the clean runs, the properly secured fixtures, the finishes that look like they belong there. We believe the craftsmanship behind the work should match the quality of what the client is trying to build.

A Development Victoria Should Pay Attention To

Folks matter beyond the lot lines on Richmond and Allenby. It demonstrates something that many people assume isn't possible in a Victoria context: that family-oriented housing can be built with a serious sustainability focus, that car-free living isn't just for singles in downtown condos, and that density, done right, can actually improve a neighbourhood.

The numbers make the case. More homes on a single lot. More green space per resident than a typical development. Lower carbon footprint from both the buildings and the transportation model. Direct connection to cycling routes and transit. Housing types that the missing middle conversation in Victoria has been calling for.

These are the kinds of projects that move the needle on what's possible. And they require tradespeople who understand the vision and can execute it at the level it deserves.

Work We're Proud Of

Four Peaks Power has been serving Victoria and Langford for years, and with a combined 40 years of experience in the electrical industry, our team has worked on everything from panel upgrades and EV charger installations to full commercial builds and specialty lighting. But projects like Folk are a reminder of why this work matters.

Good electrical and lighting work is invisible when it's done right. Residents at Folk won't think much about the infrastructure that lets them walk safely to their neighbours' doors at night, or that makes their shared outdoor space feel like somewhere worth spending an evening. They'll just experience it. That's the goal.

If you're developing or building in Greater Victoria and want a licensed electrical contractor who takes the project seriously, we'd love to hear about it.

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