Banff politicians want a clearer policy created on who is responsible for clearing sidewalks.
At a recent meeting, council directed administration to review its sidewalk clearing policy to determine which sidewalks the municipality will clear and which ones are the responsibility of residents.
This follows a series of one-off requests from residents for the Town to clear sidewalks in front of their properties in busy areas and, while they were not approved, it prompted council to consider taking another look at its policy.
Mayor Karen Sorensen had trouble approving one-off requests outside of budget, noting the requests fall within a bigger philosophical discussion on how the municipality spends taxpayer dollars on snow removal – roughly half a million dollars a year.
“It’s a global discussion around how much budget are we going to spend on sidewalks in order to improve walkability in our community in winter and how much budget are we going to spend on roads?” said Sorensen.
“It’s a big question because it’s a big ticket-item.”
Residents in four neighbourhoods have asked the Town to plow sidewalks outside their properties, including Middle Springs Drive to Fairholme Place on both sides of the streets.
The other requests are the north side of Buffalo Street from Muskrat Street to the Old Banff Cemetery; Wolf and Muskrat streets inside sidewalk through to Elk Street; and south side of Moose Street from the parking area to Muskrat Street corner.
The additional service would be a $27,600 in increase in operational budget and $48,000 for capital purchase of equipment.
“Administration’s current labour model does not support these additional service increase requests without impacting resource and service delivery in other areas previously approved,” said Nadine Setzer, manager of municipal parks operations.
The annual budget for snow clearing, including sidewalks, is $561,283, but the actual amount spent depends on the weather each winter. In 2016, the Town of Banff spent $476,888 on snow clearing, $444,713 in 2015 and $538,126 in 2014.
As a general rule, residents are responsible for sidewalk clearance in front of their properties.
The Town clears sidewalks adjacent to municipal property, mid-block crossings within the 100 and 200 block of Banff Avenue, main thoroughfares on Spray and Mountain Avenues, and trails.
The municipality also maintains public stairways, such as the Upper Tatanga stairs, for example, Central Park gazebo and areas around public washrooms and playgrounds.
Last year, the Town also began clearing sidewalks – the so-called seniors routes – from Cascade House, Mount Edith House and Olympic House to make it easier and safer for seniors to walk downtown.
Councillor Stavros Karlos said the door opened to one-off requests once council approved the seniors routes.
“The high level discussion on this is how many sidewalks do we plow? Because if it were up to me, I’d stop plowing the roads and start plowing the sidewalks,” he said.
“The metric for me in looking at this is, does clearing the sidewalk improve the safety for people and lead to more people leaving their cars at home?”
Coun. Chip Olver said some of the considerations she would like to see considered include whether it’s a commuter route or a school bus route.
She said she would also like to see crosswalks examined in this discussion.
“We really want to increase walkability of our community and that needs to include the winter time,” she said.
“I would like to see us address walkability of our crosswalks, especially in spring when we’ve got frozen icepacks and people are going down all over the place. There’s days when you’re afraid to walk.”
Mayor Sorensen said she’s happy to have a workshop on the issue, using these four areas brought forward by residents as case studies.
“Without clarity on the high level policy, I just don’t think council can continue to look at individual situations as one offs, and it’s apparent that’s what’s going to start happening,” she said.
