BANFF – Paid parking and a residential parking permit system are under consideration to ease parking pressures in the tourist town.
On Thursday (Oct. 11), council unanimously directed administration to come up with a comprehensive parking plan to manage parking downtown and on adjacent residential streets that sees parking spillover.
Options will include implementing paid parking, which the majority of residents said no to during a 2017 plebiscite, and a parking permit system for residents as more and more tourists are parking on residential streets when downtown is busy.
With Banff welcoming about 4.1 million tourists, more visitors are parking on adjacent residential streets when they can’t find parking downtown or want to avoid parking time limits.
Councillor Grant Canning voiced strong support for going down this road.
“There’s a lot of concern in the residential neighbourhoods with the busiest times seeing the spillover into residential areas and that’s a legitimate concern,” he said.
“I have always thought the residential permit process needs to be considered as part of a much bigger picture comprehensive parking management plan.”
Paid parking has been a controversial issue in Banff for more than 20 years. Fifty-four per cent of residents (1,107) said no to paid parking on a ballot question last year, while 46 per cent (959) said yes.
But Councillor Chip Olver pointed to the fact that the yes vote in 2017 was considerably higher and the no vote was about the same as the 2000 plebiscite when just 263 residents voiced support for paid parking and 1,138 residents voted against.
“In that time frame, there has been significant movement in the community with their attitudes towards user pay parking,” she said, noting there must be community consultation on this issue moving forward.
“After that ballot question, I did have people come up to me and say, ‘you know, if only it had said in the busy season, then I could have supported it, but anytime, at this length of time, is too much and I just couldn’t support it’.”
Hugh Pettigrew, who ran for mayor against Karen Sorensen during the last election and was opposed to paid parking in his election campaign, said he was taken by surprise that the topic has come up again.
“You had an opportunity to poll the public and it was clear it was no. At this point to go further, I think would be a mistake,” he told council at Thursday’s meeting. “I think it’s a shame that council is reconsidering this.”
A study this year indicated downtown parking pressures appear to be causing parking spillover into residential neighbourhoods in 100, 200 and 300 blocks of Otter and Muskrat, and 400 and 500 blocks of Beaver, Buffalo, Caribou, Moose and Wolf.
Banff looked at several places with residential parking permits in place, such as Sylvan Lake and Calgary as well as Niagara on the Lake and Innisfail in Ont. They also looked at Penticton and Kelowna in B.C. as well as
Aspen, Colo.
There are many options, including resident only parking zones, varied time limited zones and seasonal restrictions. A number of the permit systems grant residential parking permit holders additional parking rights in paid parking areas.
Town officials say residential parking permits help ensure visitors don’t monopolize residential on-street parking in an attempt to avoid paying for parking and/or strict time limit enforcement.
“We are also seeing more and more seasonal resort communities adopting similar programs as the parking needs increase for both visitors and permanent residents,” said Adrian Field, the Town of Banff’s engineering director.
