Municipal District of Bighorn councillors are not eager to pursue creation of an intercept parking lot in Dead Man’s Flats ahead of the anticipated busy Canada 150 summer in Banff National Park.
Councillor Paul Ryan brought forward the idea of using Dead Man’s Flats, about 34 kilometres east of the Banff townsite, as a temporary regional parking area to alleviate traffic concerns.
Ryan said it could potentially benefit the MD as a short-term revenue stream, with approximately 150-200 vehicles parked per acre of land.
Ryan pitched the idea at a Finance and Economic Development meeting on Tuesday (Feb. 28), following an initial briefing at the February regular meeting, to engage the Town of Banff and Parks Canada in regard to building a cheap parking lot in the hamlet and running shuttles to and from Banff.
“We have an asset that is being underutilized,” said Ryan. “We would be using a piece of land we won’t be developing immediately.
“However, (…) it would only work if they were going to participate in it.”
The four other council members met Ryan’s pitch with an unenthusiastic response, with Reeve Dene Cooper and Coun. Carolyn Montgomery saying they wouldn’t rule out listening to offers that came to council.
Councillors Erik Butters and Paul Clark, though, were for putting the idea to rest, saying it’s “not the business” they’re in.
“It isn’t a can of worms we need to open up,” said Butters. “(…) As far as being in the parking business, I don’t want to be in it. It’s beyond the scope of a small municipality and our staff have got bloody enough to do right now.”
Ryan said his idea was prompted to “help our neighbours to the west” after an informal discussion with Banff’s deputy mayor Stavros Karlos.
For Banff, Karlos said, it is time to start thinking about alternate means of transporting people around.
“Even within the region, what’s the long term planning about getting people around? It doesn’t look like a private vehicle, and I think that is an important to discussion,” Karlos said.
The federal government offered free entry to its national parks in 2017 to celebrate Canada 150.
Banff experienced a record number of visitors, 3.8 million, between April 2015 and March 2016..
