Banff’s election hopefuls have mixed feelings on how to fix the tourist town’s seasonal parking and traffic woes, including whether or not to charge people for parking.
Some candidates say it’s time for another plebiscite on paid parking, while others say building a parkade or keeping RVs and vehicles out of the downtown core with intercept parking lots will fix the parking problems.
Town administration is investigating what paid parking would look like in Banff, as well as options for use of generated revenue for transportation improvement initiatives and a report to council is expected by year’s end.
Karen Sorensen, who is seeking her second term as Banff’s mayor, is not coming out for or against paid parking at this point, saying she wants public feedback and to be able to consider all facts.
That said, she does not believe paid parking is about installing a parking meter on every street and charging on an hourly basis, noting advances in parking technology over the past 10 years provide more options.
Sorensen said one possible option is to provide people two or three hours of parking for free, but she said if people choose to stay longer in one same spot they can do so for a cost.
“We may build a new parking structure and could charge users to assist in paying off the debt involved in building it,” she said. “Possibly, street parking is at no cost, but parking lots are available for extended periods of 8-12 hours at a cost.”
Mayoral candidate Cynthia Anderson is against paid parking, but she said the transportation plan should not be about figuring out ways to cram more vehicles into the core sections of town.
“This is bad for visitors, residents and business,” she said. “If people cannot get out of their vehicles, or can only park for a short period of time, they will not be spending money in town.”
Anderson said solutions include voluntary intercept parking, Roam shuttles and Town ambassadors posted at intersections to let people know what their options are.
“Negotiations would be required with stakeholders at the train station, the Bumpers area and Parks Canada,” she said.
Mayoral hopeful Jim Abelseth said paid parking should not be implemented without the integration of Roam bus service to more remote parking locations – and he said a community poll is necessary.
He said Banff’s community plan shows the parkade on Bear Street, the Town Hall lot, the Mount Royal lot, the 200 block Bear Street, Central Park lot, and the health unit lot receive high use.
On the other hand, he said, the 100 Beaver St. and 200 Beaver St. lots, the visitor centre lot, Surprise Corner lot and Bow Falls lots have moderate use, while Cascade parkade, the Fenlands lot, baseball diamonds and rec ground see low use.
“Clearly, if paid parking were implemented in the high usage areas, the moderate and low usage areas are likely to be better utilized,” said Abelseth.
Incumbent Councillor Grant Canning said paid parking is one component of the bigger issue of how to alleviate traffic congestion, encourage more residents to walk, bike or take transit, how to deal with the parking shortfall during peak times and how to increase the frequency and use of Roam transit.
That said, Canning said he would consider paid parking, but only if a number of conditions are met. He said it’s not about revenue generation, but about changing behaviour among residents and tourists.
“The revenue generated needs to fund transportation-related initiatives and not general revenue,” he said.
“For example, the revenue would go to eliminate the need to charge fares on Roam, making it free for all passengers or pay for the construction of a new parking structure.”
Council hopeful Ted Christensen said secured perimeter parking, which could be located at the Fenlands arena and at the east entrance to town, should be considered for those tourists who must drive – coupled with transit.
“Develop unique and innovative solutions that are easy and relatively inexpensive to initiate and maintain,” he said.
But Christensen said construction of a parkade shouldn’t be ruled out.
“These could be multi-use and designed to accommodate some commercial space on valuable street side locations,” he said.
Corrie DiManno said the community will be able to better gauge the full picture of what paid parking could look like when a report comes back to council from administration.
“I don’t want to dismiss any idea – big or small – without first looking at all the pros and cons and hearing what residents have to say. Ultimately, it comes down to what’s best for this town – those who live here and those who visit,” she said.
“We need to continue to promote and support creative ideas likeBanffparking.ca to help visitors in both cars and RVs find available spots to cut down on the amount of time people are driving around searching for parking.”
Council hopeful Steven Fournier said there’s a need for a new parkade to help with the parking shortfall and said paid parking needs to be reviewed.
“We need to look into aspects of paid parking, but I would like to work with bylaw enforcement of Banff to see where they stand on the whole issue, and what they believe would be the proper way of resolving the situation” he said.
Incumbent Stavros Karlos said the solution to downtown congestion is a combination of a new parking structure, expansion of transit within Banff National Park to minimize the need for people to drive vehicles to attractions, get more visitors to use public transportation and leave their vehicle at their hotels and get more motorists to use alternative forms of transportation.
“But how do we pay for capital and operationally intensive projects like parkades and transit? Does it come from a tax increase? Or does it come from an alternative source of revenue like paid parking?” he said.
Karlos said the research on paid parking is clear – it does result in positive behavioural change in motorists – and it’s a worthy discussion to continue to ease parking shortfall and congestion.
“Careful consideration would have to be given to the local driver and tourism implications of implementing paid parking,” he said.
Ken McMurdo is against paid parking, saying charging visitors to park would be too much to pay on top of the existing Parks Canada fee to enter Banff National Park.
He said Banff has to build a parkade on either Bear Street or Beaver Street.
“There is also traffic congestion on the bridge, particularly on long weekends,” he said. “Maybe a person directing traffic would be more effective than the traffic lights.”
Jeff Mitchell said he does not believe there is a simple “yes” or “no” to the paid parking question, but believes it would be extremely unpopular to start charging people to use existing parking spaces.
“By starting paid parking across town, I would anticipate negative coverage in the media, affecting tourism, and I am unsure that it would significantly improve parking availability on these busy Banff weekends,” he said.
However, with a predicted shortfall of parking spaces during peak times increasing to 600 stalls in the next 10 years, Mitchell said it’s inevitable that Banff will need new parking infrastructure.
“New facilities, such as another parkade, will be required and we will need to plan for how it is funded,” he said.
“That could include paid parking in just these new facilities, on a temporary basis, until the costs are recovered. It could include more value for the paid parking, such as longer maximum times and/or inclusion of local transit.”
