BANFF – The Banff Avenue pedestrian zone will soon be a thing of the past.
Banff residents voted to remove the polarizing pedestrian zone after 2,523 people cast ballots in the Aug. 12 plebiscite. Of the ballots cast, 1,328 people voted to remove the pedestrian zone and 1,194 voted to keep it.
The vote gives a definitive answer to the zone’s future, which has become a significant issue in the townsite.
“We’re excited and relieved to see the vote go that way after all our hard work,” said Leslie Taylor, a representative of Banffites for a Comfortable Living Community – the group opposed to the pedestrian zone.
People opposed to the pedestrian zone argued there were several unresolved issues such as concerns about evacuation routes, business equity, increased traffic on residential streets and a diminished quality of life for residents.
Taylor, who was Banff’s first mayor and also served two terms as a councillor, said with the pedestrian zone having a vote the community can move forward in addressing concerns.
“The real problem is too many vehicles in a tiny little town. I think from watching the discussions that’s a problem both sides understand. I hope what we see going forward is people talking about that problem and how we’re going to solve that problem,” she said. “Moving it from Banff Avenue into the residential streets isn’t a solution.
“We’re running up against limits. We have a tiny town with a limited boundary and we’re going to run up against a bunch of limits in the next 10 years. We’re running into limits for housing, limits for the amount of tourists we can accommodate. We’re going to have to get used to having difficult conversations with each other. … I hope we’ll see more discussions.”
The group supporting the pedestrian zone – Friends of A Better Banff Ave. – has argued the zone encourages people to use other transit forms to get around the townsite as opposed to just vehicles. They also say it helps to better connect the community and supports the long-term goals of Banff and the national park in getting people out of personal vehicles.
“Is this the outcome we were hoping for as ‘yes’ folks? Obviously not. But we’re going to keep advocating for the things that we were advocating for: promoting active lifestyles, broader sustainability goals, that kind of stuff,” said Allan Buckingham, a representative with Friends of A Better Banff Ave.
“It felt like the pedestrian zone became kind of a lightning rod for community concerns about all kinds of things like over-tourism and traffic congestion and all kinds of things, which I totally get. Those are things we got to deal with and the community voiced what they were feeling about the pedestrian zone and all kinds of other things potentially, but that’s the way it goes.”
Banff Mayor Corrie DiManno said with the majority of voters opposed to the pedestrian zone, council will hold second and third readings at its Aug. 26 meeting to rescind their original decision to have the pedestrian zone.
She noted the issue of vehicle traffic will still need to be addressed and mitigated due to the townsite’s federally legislated permitted land use.
“This result shows council that we got it wrong and we will respect and embrace the outcome,” DiManno said. “We heard many reasons why folks didn’t want to keep the pedestrian zone, but the resounding message of concern is having too many vehicles on our finite road system. I believe this is a shared community concern no matter how people voted on the pedestrian zone.
“The pedestrian zone caused vehicles to detour onto nearby streets and that was a tipping point for folks. We know more needs to be done to find solutions to traffic congestion with Parks Canada and we will continue to advocate for that support. We cannot add more roads within our townsite, so we’re going to have to look at ways we can reduce vehicles coming into Banff while we still welcome people from across Canada and the world.”
The pedestrian zone can see as many as 30,000-40,000 people on a busy summer day. The lone vehicles allowed in the area are emergency vehicles and Roam transit buses, with gates on either side of the closed area.
Council moved ahead with the pedestrian zone in January after a public consultation period in late 2023 that involved meetings, focus groups, forums, pop-up sessions at multiple areas in town and online engagement.
However, Parks Canada – who has final say on all land use and planning decisions in the townsite – took issue with the pedestrian zone, saying it attempted to get around the federally legislated commercial cap Banff has to follow.
The pedestrian zone was implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic to allow for social distancing. A letter from Banff field unit superintendent Sal Rasheed in early January noted with the pandemic over, the federal agency felt the pedestrian zone was against federal law.
“Now that the unprecedented times are behind us, the proposed ongoing commercial use – e.g. restaurant patios, outdoor merchandise displays – of public space, is contrary to the laws which ensure this special place is protected and that both the Town of Banff and Parks Canada remain committed to,” said Rasheed in a Jan. 9 letter to Banff council.
The Town and Parks Canada have had ongoing talks on the future of the pedestrian zone.
The federal government capped commercial development in Banff in the late 1990s at an additional 350,000 square feet over what existed at the time. Commercial space has since been handed out by way of random lottery, with the majority of the space now developed.
Though council moved ahead with the pedestrian zone, residents also voiced concerns leading to a petition where 1,019 residents – 11.5 per cent of Banff’s population – triggered the plebiscite.
If a minimum 10 per cent of a municipality’s population sign a petition, the Municipal Government Act allows a plebiscite vote to happen on a specific issue.
After the petition was deemed valid, Banff council had the option of holding a vote of the electorate or overturning its previous decision of moving forward with the pedestrian zone.
The total number of eligible voters is difficult to get an exact number in Banff. The 2021 municipal election had the Ministry of Municipal Affairs estimated there were 7,055 eligible voters. The 2021 federal census had 4,450 Canadian citizens 18 and over in Banff.
The three advance polls had 1,246 residents cast ballots.
The voter turnout was larger than any previous municipal election in Banff’s history. In the 2021 municipal election, 2,090 people voted. In 2017, there were 2,215 voters.
“A lot of the campaign [for both sides] was getting out the vote. Our campaign was, ‘we believe we know what the voters want and if we believe that we should encourage everyone to vote and not just those who believe in us’,” Taylor said. “If we really believe we represent the majority, we should have faith in the process and we did.”
