Banff’s hoteliers have joined a group of downtown retailers voicing opposition to paid parking in the tourist town.
Banff Lake Louise Hotel Motel Association officials say there’s a need to increase the rate of turnover with “built” stalls and to encourage a shift to alternate modes of transportation, such as transit or cycling, but argue a user pay parking system isn’t the way to go – at least not now.
BLLHMA laid out its position in a letter to Mayor Karen Sorensen and came up with potential solutions to help ease the parking shortfall, which is estimated to be about 125 parking spots in peak tourist times.
“We believe our current traffic congestion and parking challenge is largely a function of local resident-workforce driving habits,” said Darren Reeder, the group’s executive director.
“The bulk of the problems we have can be addressed through improved communication and education efforts.”
Banff is a town of about 8,200 residents for most of the year, but the daily population swells to up to 25,000 in busy summer months, forcing RVs, buses and cars to fight for limited parking spaces.
The municipality is considering paid parking as a way to increase parking space turnover in the downtown core, and to reduce traffic congestion and gridlock caused by vehicles driving around in circles looking for parking spots.
Transportation consultants have presented options to the municipality on what paid parking could look like, including potential rates from $1 to $3 an hour depending on the time of year. It could potentially generate an estimated net revenue of $1.9 million to $2.4 million.
Council will receive a report next Monday (May 12) on all feedback received so far on the contentious issue, but they won’t be asked by administration at this point to make a decision on whether or not to implement paid parking.
Sorensen said she appreciates the effort BLLHMA put into its response to the issue, including offering up what they believe to be possible solutions to the parking crunch.
“I would agree that improved communication and education certainly can’t hurt. I am not convinced that alone will fix it, but I think it will be helpful,” she said. “Council continues to receive information and feedback and I remain very open minded on this topic.”
BLLHMA surveyed its members on parking management, with survey results representing 3,450 of the 4,850 hotel rooms (71 per cent) that are located in Banff, or within five kilometres of the town boundary.
Members were asked to consider whether it would be feasible – and whether they would be open to – pooling some of their excess parking capacity to address the town’s parking requirements during peak periods, like special events and holidays.
While 33.5 per cent indicated they would be receptive to exploring this – irrespective of whether the town chooses to pursue pay parking options, or not – 66.5 per cent noted this would just be too complicated to administer.
“Even with just half of the 33.5 per cent of parking stalls that hotels said could be contributed to create parking capacity during peak periods, it is worth noting the current parking shortfall could be met four times over,” said Reeder.
BLLHMA believes there is an easy way to start capitalizing on potential parking capacity at hotels using www.banffparking.ca.
In addition to public parking assets, including real time parking inventory at the Bear Street Parkade, they say the Town of Banff could create a parking inventory profile and map for each property that is willing to contribute inventory, at their sole discretion.
Hotels could log in to www.banffparking.ca to activate parking inventory when it aligns with their business needs; and they could just as easily remove their property from active inventory when it does not.
BLLHMA also recommends that a seasonal parking management plan be developed with input from the Town, Banff Lake Louise Tourism, BLLHMA and Parks Canada.
“With our busiest season just around the corner, a summer communications strategy could easily be developed to include details about known peak parking days, expected visitation levels, special events, large conferences, holidays, etc.,” said Reeder in the letter.
Reeder said BLLHMA has been a big supporter of local and regional transit services for the resident and visitor population and last fall negotiated a special rate on a regional transit pass for accommodation sector workers, which would save monthly transit pass holders 30 per cent.
However, he said, the Bow Valley Regional Transit Services Commission reports that not one hotel has taken advantage of the regional pass offer.
“Given the predominance of Banff as the primary place of residence for approximately 94 per cent of the accommodation sector workforce, it has become clear that local transit, not regional, needs to be the focus,” said Reeder.
