BANFF – The Banff Avenue pedestrian zone will soon be a distant memory, but consideration of something similar is not going away.
Though the community voted to remove this iteration of the Banff Ave. pedestrian zone, the narrow vote indicates there is still a level of interest in the concept.
And many of Banff’s decision-makers have expressed an interest to continue to explore the idea, though anything that’s come to fruition will likely be years away.
However, factors ranging from whether it circumvents the federally legislated commercial cap, traffic congestion and impacts on quality of life will have to be addressed.
Mayor Corrie DiManno used the analogy of visitor pay parking and the resident parking permit system in potentially reaching a place where a pedestrian zone may return.
Visitor pay parking was a divisive issue for several years in the community – including a plebiscite vote in 2000 that had residents get rid of visitor pay parking after a one-year trial – with continuous community discussion on whether to have such a system.
“We spent a lot of time doing a lot of in-depth conversation and trying to figure out what would help folks get to yes,” she said. “With pay parking, we learned three free hours for parking downtown, protecting the parking on residential streets [were important]. I liken the downtown pedestrian zone to pay parking in a lot of ways, in that eventually we got there, but there were mitigations that we had to have in place first before the community was ready to really make that leap.
“I think we're also going to continue to prioritize pedestrians, cyclists and people and we can find other ways to just keep making progress towards being a model environmental community.”
Coun. Barb Pelham said there may be larger community interest in the pedestrian zone in the future, but the focus should be on “concerns that the electorate have expressed.”
She said she heard from many residents who enjoy the pedestrian zone, but voted against it because of concerns about congestion, evacuation plans, housing shortages, conflict with Parks Canada or a combination of those issues.
Coun. Kaylee Ram said it was promising to hear residents were interested in a “more wholesome, holistic discussion” for Banff Avenue’s future.
She said any firm decision is likely far off, following lengthy community discussions. She noted the last transformation of Banff Avenue took place in 2008.
“It was a huge, massive capital project,” Ram said. “As someone who felt the impacts of Bear Street during construction, those businesses that still have the same owners or same workers that are still there, they remember how hard that was.
“I’ve heard people who were on the no side of the vote and they’ve said ‘can’t you just copy and paste what you did on Bear Street onto Banff Avenue?’ Part of the discussion when we were talking about it in December and service review was looking at it for a more long-term capital project or renovation is a couple things.”
Addressing concerns
As one of two votes in opposition against the pedestrian zone in January, Coun. Ted Christensen said a key aspect is hearing residents’ concerns and finding ways to solve them.
He said better understanding of the implications of the pedestrian zone and the federally legislated commercial cap, traffic congestion and concerns on evacuation impacts are all necessary.
“Hopefully those discussions that were once sought and still needed will be brought to the forefront,” he said. “We haven’t had those discussions. … I think it’ll bode well on the community to have these discussions because we’ll have to have these discussions. The desire for increased business doesn’t go away with a no vote. Hopefully, it’ll come with some better planning and some more disclosure on the information.”
Christensen said a key cog in any future decision is having the Banff Community Plan in place. The advisory committee for the plan has met several times this year, with it to be brought to council in the near future.
“We haven’t seen our community plan. … I think we should be using that as a guideline, but we haven’t seen it. I think had we had that to guide us, there’d be more understanding,” he said. “The community plan is for the benefit of the whole community. I think the pedestrian zone vote is a piece of the whole picture that’s been growing in its awareness with the housing crisis, and traffic dilemmas but it’s all related to the idea of how much is enough in the community.”
Long-time Coun. Grant Canning said many of the concerns expressed by residents need assistance from other levels of government.
“The vote tells me the ped zone is the future, it is not the present. So, we need to plan for the future. We do that by addressing and mitigating the concerns,” he said. “Sadly, we are limited in what we can do. I will continue to push for intercept parking, more reliance on transit, more pedestrianization.”
He emphasized all options need to be looked at in addressing concerns raised by residents, but “it starts and ends with getting people out of their cars before they come into town.”
Over-tourism a concern
Leslie Taylor, a representative from Banffites for a Comfortable Living Community who was opposed to the pedestrian zone, said a common theme heard during engagement through door knocking was traffic issues, concerns about the impacts of evacuation and over-tourism in the community.
The group had 33 people collect signatures for the petition process and 11 people knocked on doors and distributed flyers in the lead-up to the vote.
She said the majority of people volunteers talked to weren’t opposed to the idea of a pedestrian zone, but wished to have their concerns addressed first.
“What we were mostly hearing at the doors were ‘there are various problems … and until they’re addressed, we shouldn’t be doing this,’” she said of community feedback.
“We’re not ready to do this until we address these problems. There are some people who don’t want a pedestrian zone period, but I would say that there are more people who say, ‘solve the problems and then let’s talk about it’. It may not be a pedestrian/restaurant/retail zone. It might be something different.”
Taylor, who was Banff’s first mayor, said people also relayed they felt their concerns were being minimized and not properly understood. She noted, however, an overriding theme from many people was over-tourism.
“When we create additional attractions within the townsite, we make our issues with over-tourism worse, and we make our traffic congestion worse,” she said of feedback from people during the door knocking campaign in the lead-up to the vote.
“If I was to put one umbrella over a lot of the comments we heard, that umbrella would be related to over-tourism. … The fact that we have fixed boundaries and that we have to live within them is becoming more and more apparent to people.”
Allan Buckingham, a representative for Friends of a Better Banff Ave. who was supportive of keeping the pedestrian zone, said following the Aug. 12 vote the hope is to keep the possibility alive for future potential.
“Bear Street is already pedestrianized in a lot of ways, which is awesome and I love that over there. I would like to see it here. I thought it was awesome,” Buckingham said. “Was it perfect? No. But I would like the opportunity to keep evolving it and making it better as we go along. That’s not going to happen for now and that’s the way it goes. The community has spoken and that’s not what they are into right now.”
Parks Canada stance on future pedestrian zone unknown
In January, Banff National Park superintendent Sal Rasheed wrote a letter to Banff council expressing concern about the pedestrian zone and argued the sidewalk restaurant patios circumvent the federally legislated commercial cap.
The pedestrian zone was first implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic to provide required social distancing and allow businesses to operate along the busy stretch of Banff Avenue.
However, Rasheed told Banff council with the pandemic over, the zone attempted to get around federal law.
“Now that the unprecedented times are behind us, the proposed ongoing commercial use – e.g. restaurant patios, outdoor merchandise displays – of public space, is contrary to the laws which ensure this special place is protected and that both the Town of Banff and Parks Canada remain committed to,” said Rasheed in a Jan. 9 letter.
The Town and Parks Canada have continued to have meetings at the Intergovernmental Liaison Committee meeting – a closed door committee of Banff’s mayor and town manager and Banff superintendent – with one another to discuss the viability of the pedestrian zone, which was ultimately decided by Banff voters.
Rasheed also informed Banff council direction from the 2022 Banff National Park Management Plan, which gave clear definition of commercial development. He pointed to a 2013 Alberta Court of Appeal decision on commercial use public service districts that determined if there are conflicting or overlapping provisions, the park management plan trumps the Town of Banff’s land use bylaw or other municipal policy.
“The management plan commits to maintaining the longstanding legal restrictions to commercial development that have come to be appreciated by so many Banff residents and leaders, and by so many visitors, for their foresight in protecting and maintaining the character of this amazing place,” he said.
“This plan commitment was supported by the Town of Banff in the consultation process. Simply put, today we are reaping the benefits that have been sustained by successive governments at both the federal and Town of Banff levels.”
The commercial cap came into being in the late 1990s when there were concerns about development in the Banff townsite and its impact on the national park. An additional 350,000 square feet over what existed at the time was legislated.
Timelines to remove pedestrian zone
Banff council’s first meeting since the vote is Aug. 26. They could give second and third readings to the bylaw to rescind the pedestrian zone, but have up to 30 days from the Aug. 12 vote to do so.
The Town, however, has told businesses in the pedestrian zone area to remove all seating and displays by Aug. 27.
Jason Darrah, director of communications and marketing for the Town, said businesses who received permits for commercial seating or displays for the pedestrian zone area will not get a pro-rated amount for their permit.
He said under the street and public place use bylaw, which allows sidewalk seating and outdoor merchandising permits on one-time fees, there’s no setup for the Town to provide refunds whether it’s for the pedestrian zone or other locations.
“When the permit applications were identified to businesses and when permits were issued, businesses were made aware that the permits may be cancelled early, and that info also remained on the project page at Banff.ca/BanffAve,” he said.
Council will meet Aug. 26 and could discuss further options.
“I don’t want to presuppose any council decisions, but I get the sense council would want to act accordingly because Banff voters have had their say in what they’d like to see. And we want to act accordingly,” DiManno said after the vote on timelines to move forward with the electorate’s wishes to discontinue the pedestrian zone.
The sidewalk seating and outdoor merchandising policies allow some permit holders to amend existing permits to have sidewalk seating and/or outdoor merchandise in front of their business. However, they have to have an unobstructed sidewalk at a minimum of two metres on Caribou Street and three metres on Banff Avenue.
“They are required to contact us for the amended permit,” Darrah said.
As part of the permitting, safety information was provided to businesses in May and after the Aug. 12 vote on bringing in vehicles to the zones, speed limits and having spotters when the vehicles are moving.
Darrah said tables, chairs and other structures will be easy to take apart due to them being constructed to be assembled and dismantled easily. He said the main challenge will be having a vehicle come into the zone to remove anything, with any business doing so earlier needing to contact the Town to coordinate entry and exit so the gates are open.
Banff Avenue doesn’t have parking spots but there are pull-ins for loading and unloading as well as bus stops.
On Caribou Street, Darrah said when there aren’t any restaurant patios there are six parking spots. However, redevelopment work on underground utilities will take place next year when sidewalk curbs are removed to enhance accessibility.
A request for an interview on Aug. 12 with Banff National Park superintendent Sal Rasheed and a request for comment from the field unit on Parks Canada on traffic management had Banff field unit strategic communications advisor Cassandra Smyth tell the Outlook Aug. 14 a response was being worked on. As of Aug. 21, the response was continuing to be worked on.
A follow-up request on Aug. 19 asking to interview a senior leadership member from the field unit on what concerns would need to be addressed if a pedestrian zone concept were brought forward again was declined on Aug. 21.
