BANFF – The Town of Banff is looking at ways to put the brakes on illegal camping at the train station intercept parking lot.
While proactive patrols are done every morning, council has asked administration to bring forward a new service level request that addresses options for increased management – such as a gate or additional enforcement – of the 500-stall intercept lot and the RV parking lot on Railway Avenue.
“I actually, from my own experience going by there early in the morning, have noticed there’s a pretty significant amount of illegal camping, not only in the main Liricon lot but in particular the RV lot off of Railway Ave,” said Coun. Grant Canning.
“I’ve seen as many as eight or nine RVs sitting there as early as six o’clock in the morning, so I think it’s a significant issue and I think it’s something we should look into – either enforcing it more or the idea of putting up some kind of barricade to prevent them from parking overnight.”
According to the Town of Banff, there have been 144 tickets and warnings issued for illegal camping in a vehicle so far this year.
Complaints to the municipality regarding illegal camping currently sit at 22. The morning patrols could explain the difference between the number of tickets and warnings issued versus the number of complaints received.
Town Manager Kelly Gibson said Liricon Capital – which provides the Town of Banff access to the parking lot – would need to be part of the conversation should a gate be installed.
“One of the complications of a gate is putting infrastructure in, which would be subject to that approval,” he said, noting any gate would highly likely come at a cost to the municipality.
“There may be other difficulties with gates and how we would operate that, but those are things that we could bring back as part of a new service level request and council could decide on that.”
Mayor Corrie DiManno supported getting the information for service review at this time.
“I need to better understand how big of an issue this is. We’ve had this for a couple of summers now; this is the first time it’s rising to the surface,” she said.
“I don't know if I have enough information to know if this is an issue besides from some anecdotal feedback, but I am happy to at least learn more about what it could cost and what it would like.”
