BANFF – Long-term plans to redevelop Bow Avenue into more of a park-like setting have been pushed down the road again.
During budget talks on Wednesday (Jan. 10), council pushed back a few capital projects, including beautification of Bow Avenue from 2024-25 to 2025-26, with the $450,000 budget for design work to come from visitor paid parking revenues.
Officials raised concerns about links to the proposed area redevelopment plan at the nearby railway lands as well as the need for solutions for the loss of 94 parking stalls associated with revitalization of a 400-metre stretch of the river-side street.
“I think it’s simply premature,” said Coun. Barb Pelham, who pitched deferring the project another a year during Jan. 10 budget deliberations. “I think these are connected.”
While there are no construction dollars set aside for this project, there are three high level concepts for Bow Avenue, which currently is a one-way street with long-term free parking for about 100 vehicles right beside the Bow River.
Under the first concept, the elimination of cars would allow for restoration of a near-30-metre wide riparian zone, while still maintaining wide, separated, paved paths for pedestrians and cyclists.
Access to the river would be maintained via secondary trails leading to viewpoints along the water’s edge.
A second proposal maintains separate paved trails for pedestrians and cyclists, but retains a northbound traffic lane adjacent to the cycling trail. A narrow and winding roadway design would aim to slow vehicle speeds.
The last option would be two-way vehicle traffic without a dedicated cycling lane.
Adrian Field, director of engineering for the Town of Banff, said it might be wise to defer the project until a solution can be found on how best to mitigate the loss of about 100 parking stalls.
“At this point, we wouldn’t recommend taking those away unless there’s other big changes, such as more intercept parking or more effective transit or other disincentives to driving,” he said.
Although the overall trend since 2003 has been to increasingly use Bow Avenue for parking, several important drivers have emerged in recent years that are likely to affect the future evolution of the 400-metre corridor.
That includes the listing of bull trout as a threatened species under the federal Species At Risk Act in 2019. That means the Bow River and adjacent 30-metre riparian buffer are now legally protected bull trout critical habitat.
In addition, parts of the trail are prone to flooding and closures in spring and early summer during the runoff, while sinkholes develop on low-lying and unstable areas of the trail, causing public safety closures and ongoing repairs inside an environmentally sensitive area.
Darren Enns, director of planning and environment for the Town of Banff, said redevelopment of Bow Avenue is driven by the municipality’s trails master plan, but there is also an important ecological component.
“If you think about Bow Avenue, it’s the one place in town where you can park your car almost in the river,” he said.
Enns said the municipality is currently working with Parks Canada on a storm water assessment and an evaluation of the aquatic health of the Bow River.
If Parks Canada were to identify any pressing environmental concerns, he said the Town of Banff would respond immediately.
“If there’s any feedback that would come out from that process, we would bring that back to council,” he said.
Mayor Corrie DiManno, who pushed for this project during last year’s budget deliberations, said she remains passionate about this concept for Bow Avenue, but agreed to defer based on question marks remaining.
“I love it for so many different reasons, especially when I think about trying to enhance the experience of spending time in nature but still within the townsite,” she said.
“This project just has so much potential and I see the vision and I think it’s really exciting that we can make both recreation and environmental gains at the same times.”
