The future of paid parking in the town of Banff will be on the ballot in the next municipal election in 2017.
While a petition this summer successfully put an end to paid parking in the resort community, it was only a trial period that was affected.
Banff’s finance committee heard a presentation on the results of the trial at its meeting last week from manager of engineering Adrian Field.
As part of the recommendations out of the report, council voted to put the question of paid parking to a vote of the electorate.
Councillor Stavros Karlos said traffic congestion in downtown Banff in summer is not part of his vision of the community in the future.
“I heard a lot about fear from our residents this summer and I’m scared too,” he said. “Don’t get me wrong, I fear losing my livelihood. I run a local business and I fear making a mistake at this table and driving one person away.
“The time for solutions is now and we have an opportunity to change the landscape of Banff. Implementing paid parking in the core is one way to implement behavioural change in our community.”
Karlos put forward a failed motion to bring paid parking back in 2017 to address parking and congestion in Banff.
A following motion to bring parking options back to council if the shortfall in parking stalls exceeds 150 stalls, on the other hand, was successful. If that doesn’t happen before the next municipal election, however, council voted to put it on the ballot and have the community vote on the issue.
Coun. Ted Christensen amended a motion successfully to add options of building a parkade or developing intercept parking to the vote of the electorate.
Mayor Karen Sorensen pointed out all three options come with significant capital costs, with a parkade currently estimated at $18 million, so asking voters makes sense.
Field said traffic management in Banff has had a number of successes in 2014 and staff have worked hard at implementing the transportation master plan in order to address congestion.
“We have seen unprecedented volumes coming into town,” he said. “We had the biggest day ever with 31,500 vehicles entering the town. In the big picture, we feel the focus should be on long-term planning.”
Field said 94 parking stalls have been created and pointed to increased ridership on Roam regional service and use of the new pedestrian bridge as ways parking demand in the downtown core has been addressed.
The parking report, he added, showed there is a shortfall of 31 parking stalls now as opposed to the 125 stalls identified in 2012.
“The shortfall is likely to increase, as visitor numbers increase, to 139 stalls in five years,” Field said. “We need to continue to make best use of current stalls by promoting sustainable transportation, enforcement and enhancing alternatives.”
The results of the Vinci parking study, said Field, showed that paid parking had the desired effect of freeing up stalls in parking lots.
Karlos pointed out with Parks Canada’s focus in its management plan of increasing visitation by two per cent a year, parking will continue to be a challenge.
He stressed that parking in Banff’s downtown core is for visitors and continued information on parking is needed.
“We need to know what goes on every year,” he said. “The past three years with better and accurate data we are better able to make decisions. I want to know what our parking shortfall is on an annual basis.”
Council voted unanimously to study peak parking times annually with an operating budget of $7,000 for 2015.
