Banff’s elected officials will meet on Sept. 15 to decide how to proceed on the issue of paid parking now that a petition submitted to the municipality has been deemed sufficient.
Council met Wednesday (Aug. 27) and Chief Administrative Officer Robert Earl said following required validation, the petition filed on July 31 is sufficient. While it was submitted with 1,473 signatures, administration considered 1,071 to be valid, which exceeds the minimum 10 per cent needed under legislation for action to be taken.
Earl said as per the legislation council can rescind the nine separate motions that were the subject of the petition or put the issue to a vote of the electors – basically a plebiscite where residents can vote on each motion.
“Administration will provide options when we meet again,” Earl said.
The nine motions petition organizers want rescinded surround the issue of paid parking in Banff and a pilot project currently underway in the resort community. The pilot program runs until Oct. 31 and involves five surface parking lots in the downtown core from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. – about 17 per cent of the available 1,400 parking stalls.
Contractor Vinci Park, which uses licence plate recognition technology, is running the system.
Alanna Pettigrew with Banff Residents Against Paid Parking said she hoped council would rescind the motions at the meeting this week.
“We fully expected that the process would be that they move forward to rescind the motion – it feels a bit like some stalling perhaps, however, it may just be part of the process,” Pettigew said. “We are actually seeking advice as to what the timelines are with regards to what happens next.”
She said not only should the motions be rescinded, but a plebiscite needs to be held so the electoral base of the community can have its say.
“This is a paramount decision that affects our community and should they move forward it will spill out into residential streets as we have seen the plans for residential paid parking,” Pettigrew said.
“What is going on is we are paying for parking that has already been supplied through taxpayer dollars. If we need to look further as to solving our traffic issues we need to relieve congestion issues first and if we do require additional parking, then additional solutions need to come forward.
“There are a number of people in the community that can lend their skills and talents as to what they want to see for our future.”
The Sept. 15 meeting will also allow council to receive public input submissions on the issue. Mayor Karen Sorensen asked administration to bring back the costs associated with scrapping the paid parking trial.
“I would like to direct administration to bring the cost associated with meeting the petition request of stopping the paid parking trial and the licence plate recognition technology,” she said. “And I would also like to know the cost of the effects on the research we are conducting by shortening the timeframe (of the pilot).”
