The Town of Banff continues to proactively crack down on graffiti throughout the tourist town by way of two or more graffiti elimination campaigns each year.
Up until Aug. 1 of this year, there have been 86 instances of graffiti on town property, private property and on utilities company equipment, with 52 per cent of it occurring on private property.
“During the course of our regular duties we always have an eye open for new graffiti,” said Al Macnaughton, a community peace officer with the Town of Banff’s Bylaw Services.
“Any new graffiti is photographed and catalogued and, depending on size, abundance and content, certain instances of graffiti become an urgent priority and those property owners will be served notices, usually within 72 hours.”
The total number of recorded graffiti instances since January 2010 is 473.
The Town’s practice over the past few years has been to conduct two or more regular graffiti elimination campaigns each year, beginning with a townwide graffiti inspection and photographs taken.
On municipal property, graffiti is removed within seven to 14 days as per the Community Standards Bylaw, while the owners of private property and utility companies are usually given 14 days to clean up graffiti.
The Town of Banff follows up with a second inspection, and final warnings if the graffiti has not been removed. So far, eight final notices have been issued to private property owners, although no fines have been issued.
Councillor Stavros Karlos said he would like to see a beefed up education program around the cleanup.
“Property owners are essentially the targets of crime and the victims of crime, but we need to let them know they are responsible,” he said. “It causes me visual anxiety. You see the ebbs and flows and I feel at times it gets really bad.”
Macnaughton said Bylaw Services does adjust expectations on timelines for graffiti cleanup when Banff experiences long periods of cold temperatures.
“Overall, large sweeping campaigns are a more efficient use of resources than a case-by-case approach,” he said.
