BANFF – Outdoor propane heaters will continue to be banned on sidewalk patios in the public realm of Banff’s downtown.
Councillors had earlier voted to explore amending the sidewalk seating policy to allow for heating devices based on feedback from some businesses, but in the end, decided to keep the ban in place.
During a council meeting on Monday (March 28), Councillor Hugh Pettigrew voiced opposition to allowing propane heaters.
“I think it’s contrary to our environmental policies and goals,” he said.
The policy governing sidewalk seating in Banff stipulates that a sidewalk seating permit application will be refused if it contains heating devices.
Emma Sanborn, a development planner with the Town of Banff, said this area of the policy was relaxed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
She said business owners relied on sidewalk seating areas in the colder months to support their businesses at a time when health restrictions limited indoor eating opportunities.
“We had business owners on the street that were operating earlier than normal in colder months,” she said.
“They were trying to extend their floor space and accommodate visitors in the pandemic, so there was a relaxation over the past couple of years on this topic.”
Town of Banff administration maintains allowing propane patio heaters would fly in the face of council’s ambitious climate action and environmental agenda, which includes a reduction in community-wide greenhouse gas emissions to 30 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030.
“Administration maintains that it would be more congruent with the Banff environmental master plan to continue to not allow these heating devices in the public realm, “ said Sanborn.
Instead, the planning and development department recommends options such as patio design and orientation, blankets and seat heaters as more appropriate to provide warmth on outdoor patios in the public realm.
Sanborn said they would also not require municipal oversight or regulation.
“A simple blanket is something we see in other cold outdoor winter cafe areas of the world that embrace outdoor dining,” she said.
Longtime Banff resident Gary Doyle wrote council a letter to council outlining his concerns over propane heaters, like the municipal one on Bear Street.
He said propane heaters have no place in a town that is waving the “environmental flag.”
“Either you believe in the ‘environmental’ agenda or you don’t. You have to be one or the other,” he wrote.
Doyle said he was recently walking across the road from the fireplace on Bear Street when he heard a couple of tourists chatting.
“One person said to the other, ‘wow, they have money to burn in this town’. Not sure as a taxpayer that this is the type of message I want my town to be sending the world, especially if it is related to fossil fuels burning,” he said.
Doyle called on the Town of Banff to remove the Bear Street fireplace and acknowledge it was a mistake.
“People don’t mind folks admitting that they made a mistake. We are all just human,” he said.
The ban on outdoor heating devices only applies to the public realm and not private spaces.
“Some restaurants have patios on private property that are visible from the public realm,” said Sanborn. “The sidewalk seating policy does not apply to these spaces and outdoor heating devices may be used.”
