Editor: We were very disappointed the Town of Banff voted to disregard Parks Canada's concerns about the closure of Banff Avenue to expand commercial restaurant space and the concerns of many residents and our foundation about displacing traffic including trucks and buses onto Beaver Street.
The temporary COVID-19-related closure of Banff Avenue to allow open air dining was understandable. But this effort to permanently close Banff Avenue is not acceptable.
The four legally designated homes and the historic garden the Eleanor Luxton Historical Foundation owns on Beaver Street were very negatively affected by the temporary closure. The noise from trucks and buses has over-whelmed our once quiet garden, one of only three surviving Arts and Crafts Gardens in Western Canada. Beaver Street is a residential street; it always has been. Banff Avenue is the through street for the park and town for park facilities south of the river; it always has been. The Town was designed that way. That is the heritage of Banff.
We were greatly relieved when Banff National Park Superintendent Sal Rasheed wrote to the Town for a pause so there could be a wider public discussion. We were shocked to see the Town flagrantly disregard our collective landlord's effort to ensure the commercial development cap and the public interest were protected. We had assumed there would be a period of calm reflection and integrated consideration or of broader transportation and heritage values once Parks weighed in. After all, this is a national park and Parks Canada is our landlord. Instead, the Town has disrespectfully bulldozed ahead with a very bad decision.
We urge Banff council to reverse its decision. We need a proper conversation about how all the traffic, parking and other heritage and ecological values of our community and park are properly respected, not this ill-advised closure of the Town's major traffic artery for the last 130 years to expand the commercial footprint at the expense of our community and its heritage.
Bill Luxton,
President of Eleanor Luxton Historical Foundation,
Banff
