The Town of Banff is trying to come up with unique ways to provide more housing for entry-level employees in the tourist town.
Instead of businesses paying a cash fee for the resident housing program, the Town is proposing applicants could meet the requirement by building legal suites in private dwellings.
Officials say this approach would help create new housing units, as well as give property owners a helping hand in paying their mortgages.
Mayor Karen Sorensen said the Land Use Bylaw currently allows applicants to meet their housing requirements by paying in-lieu-of fees or by constructing new residential units.
“The bylaw allows any residential bedroom to be used as a credit,” she said. “The proposed amendment is suggesting that some housing forms will do a better job of meeting employee housing needs than others, specifically apartments and basement suites.”
The Town has scheduled more community kiosk events to give the public a chance to express their views to their politicians on this housing issue and a host of other land use bylaw issues.
The kiosks resume Thursday, April 21 and wrap up Thursday, April 28.
Mayor Sorensen said adequate and comfortable housing for residents is critical to the ongoing success of Banff, noting the right mix of housing for employees must be provided.
“This improves the employees’ quality of life, which in turn positively impacts customer service and the visitor experience,” she said.
As part of the Land Use Bylaw Review, it’s been recognized that building new, required employee bedrooms instead of providing cash-in-lieu, can also be a prohibitive venture for small, local businesses.
Under the proposal, new “built bedrooms” could be provided by a joint venture with a local homeowner, who is planning on building a secondary suite.
The land use bylaw review team would like to see in-lieu-of bedrooms limited to those provided in apartment housing and/or an approved secondary suite.
“This would arguably focus construction to ensure that service sector employees are the beneficiaries of new accommodation units, thereby fulfilling the original intent of the housing requirements,” they say.
“This approach may also encourage peer-to-peer subsidies for people building secondary suites, where a commercial developer can step in and help fund the capital of building a suite that meets building codes.”
Since 2001, the Town has required developers of new commercial development, or redevelopment that leads to intensification, provide housing or pay a cash-in-lieu fee, currently set at $21,000 per bedroom. Cash-in-lieu payments are set aside for Banff Housing Corporation capital projects.
In the past five years, an average of $17,000 a year has been collected from housing cash-in-lieu fees, while the remaining bedroom credits have been met through the construction of new bedrooms.
The bylaw review team says the housing requirement was arguably created to mitigate housing pressures created by commercial expansion.
This, they say, suggests that the housing units created as a result of these regulations were intended to target those employees primarily in the service sector.
However, the Land Use Bylaw does not stipulate the quality, size, location or any other material aspect of bedrooms which are eligible for a housing credit.
“This has resulted in bedrooms being constructed for Land Use Bylaw credit which will never be used to house those most in need,” according to the review team.
“When this occurs, we have arguably missed the mark.”
Mayor Sorensen said the proposal could be effective in building up the entry-level employee housing inventory, but it does assume entry-level employees only live in apartment or basement suites.
“And that is not necessarily the case or the desire,” she said. “The municipal census should provide us with more data on need.”
Here are the community kiosk events:
• Thursday, April 21, Nester’s Market 5 - 7 p.m.
• Tuesday, April 26, Nester’s Market 5 - 7 p.m.
• Wednesday, April 27, Bison Courtyard 11 a.m. – 1 p.m.
• Thursday, April 28, Cascade Plaza 11 a.m. – 1 p.m.
