BANFF – A temporary moratorium on business licences for bed and breakfasts in Banff will be in place while the Town works on developing an updated policy for tourist accommodations.
Banff council approved the moratorium Wednesday (July 12) at a special meeting of council, which will allow development permits for bed and breakfasts to be applied for by applicants and approved by the Town. However, receiving a potential business licence for new applicants would have to wait until an updated B&B policy is approved by council.
Coun. Barb Pelham, who brought forward the notice of motion for the temporary moratorium at the June 26 meeting, said she did so after learning on May 16 of a bed and breakfast application that could potentially convert a basement in a single-family to tourist accommodation.
She noted with a local healthcare worker renting the basement, it would lead the person to having to find new housing in the community.
“It inspired me to see if there a way for us to say ‘hang on until this council has a chance to hear all the public input about the proposed changes to the bed and breakfast bylaw and for us to make a collective decision about how to go forward’. It’s purely to just hold what we have right now until those bigger decisions and bigger conversations are had,” she said.
Council gave the first two readings July 10, but Couns. Ted Christensen and Hugh Pettigrew voted against for a 4-2 vote. With all three readings needing to be unanimous on the same day, a special meeting was held less than 48 hours later to reach approval.
At the June 26 meeting, council voted 3-2 to have Town staff create an amendment for the business licence bylaw for a temporary pause on new B&B licences until council approved regulations that have been in the works for four years.
Dave Michaels, the Town’s manager of planning services, said development permits could still be processed but the business licence would not yet be issued until the updated bed and breakfast bylaw is approved.
“We would continue to operate as we have been doing. Any new development permits that would be issued and once they’ve met all their conditions, they basically go in a queue,” he said. “They may get a business licence if they’re in a heritage property, however, if they weren’t, they would go into a holding pattern until a business licence became available through one of the other mechanisms.”
Pelham emphasized the temporary moratorium can be revoked at any time, but is ultimately meant to be in place until an updated bed and breakfast bylaw is approved by council.
“This pause is intended to prevent further loss of our housing inventory to guest accommodation until this council confirms the bed and breakfast bylaw. It’s not about a reduction in bed and breakfast numbers,” she said. “This motion is about a pause in issuing more bed and breakfast licences until council affirms the new bed and breakfast bylaw.”
Pelham has served on Municipal Planning Commission (MPC) for four years as both a public member and councillor and has previously said 14 applications since 2019 have led to the loss of 20 housing units.
Council’s top goal from its strategic plan is housing and the latest resident satisfaction survey had housing and lack of affordable housing as the main issue, with Banff being short between 700 to 1,000 housing units.
Council began talks on B&B regulations May 8 at a governance and finance committee meeting and asked Town staff to cap the number at 36 B&Bs, with 15 set aside for designated municipal heritage buildings.
The existing quota is 65, but there are 40 B&B homes and eight B&B inns. A reduction in the cap wouldn’t impact inns.
If changed, all existing B&Bs would be grandfathered in until they were closed, sold or had their permits revoked for violating rules.
Exemptions to the temporary moratorium would include applications for a business licence for a B&B home identified as a historic resource by the Banff Heritage Corporation, or a business licence issued before the moratorium comes into effect.
In addition, the exemption clause would allow a new business licence to be issued if a redevelopment permit has already been issued or has been conditionally approved before the moratorium comes into effect.
The bylaw is expected to return to council later this year.
“The end is closer than the start,” Michaels said of the bylaw.
A staff report noted there are three bed and breakfast applications going through the process, which are conditionally approved and not yet meeting all the necessary conditions. Michaels said one is for a property that was previously a bed and breakfast and two are heritage properties. However, all three could get a business licence when conditions are met.
A motion from Pettigrew to remove the moratorium exemption for heritage properties was defeated, saying he said he had concerns for a “level playing field.”
Mayor Corrie DiManno noted when two heritage homes – the McKay House at 216 Muskrat St. and the Kidney residence at 328 Muskrat St. – were demolished, the community “was swift and loud and showed that the community really values these properties.”
In a letter to council, B&B owner and member of the original B&B working group Edwina Handley wrote operators were being unfairly targeted by reducing B&Bs to create more housing.
She pointed to Basecamp Plaza occupying the upper level of Cascade Plaza.
“That also took away long-term housing and that was just recently,” she said.
Handley also warned that just because B&B licences are lowered, it doesn’t necessarily mean those B&Bs will go to the rental market.
“If you decrease the number of B&Bs in town you also raise the cost of the guest's experience,” she said.
“There will be no volume of reasonable alternatives to the $600-$4,000 a night rooms that exist in town and that closes the door to a whole demographic of visitors.”
DiManno added the bed and breakfast working group, MPC and Banff Heritage Corporation all made recommendations for council on the topic. When the bed and breakfast bylaw returns for council consideration, the public will again have an opportunity to provide feedback.
“When we get to first reading and the public hearing, that is the opportunity for anyone in the community to come and be engaged and I encourage everyone who is interested in this topic and housing in this town to come and let council know their opinions on the proposed changes,” she said.
