Petition to end Banff pedestrian zone declared valid
A petition to overturn the Town of Banff 's decision to have an annual pedestrian zone on Banff Avenue was declared valid this week.
Town manager Kelly Gibson said the petition was submitted March 1 by a member of the community who was responsible for gathering signatures.
“Town staff went through a process to review all of the signatures on the petition, transferring all the data into a spreadsheet to look for duplicate entries and make notes on any other inconsistencies with the requirements of Alberta's Municipal Government Act,” Gibson said, adding that each entry was also verified by either phone or email.
The total number of signatures collected was 1,114. Of those, 1,019 were deemed valid. The unaccounted entries were either duplicate records, illegible or did not have a valid street address listed.
Mayor Corrie Dimanno said council will review the bylaw May 13 and make decisions on how to proceed.
“I continue to respect the democratic process as it relates to the petition, and I respect the (chief administrative officer's) determination that it's a valid petition. As well, the residents who organized and signed the petition have absolutely been heard through this process,” Dimanno said.
Former Banff mayor and town councillor Leslie Taylor spearheaded the petition and previously told Postmedia the pedestrian zone has caused traffic congestion for people who live on residential streets.
“The circulation of our whole town is designed around Banff Avenue, and so all the commercial traffic — the trucks, the buses, the visitor vehicles — that's all diverted onto narrow residential streets. We're essentially blocking our main artery and redirecting that circulation elsewhere, into roads that aren't designed for it,” she said.
Council is required to pass the first reading within 30 days, which is planned for the May 13 council meeting.
“Because the pedestrian zone opens that following weekend on
May long weekend, it's likely council will make a decision on the 13th whether they'll either pass second or third reading, which would rescind the decision and there wouldn't be a pedestrian zone — or they could also go to a vote of the electorate, which is a binding vote, and then they have 90 days from that,” said Gibson.
It is the actual bylaw that cancels the pedestrian zone; if it goes to a vote of the electorate, there would still be a pedestrian zone until a final decision is made.
The town used the 2017 census, which had a population of 8,865, to calculate the 10 per cent minimum number of signatures required for the petition — which would be 887.
“If it goes to the vote of electorate, that is binding for three years. If council decides to rescind, that's not a binding decision, so they could review it again. I'm not sure that they would, but it could be reviewed if the decision was rescinded,” Gibson said.
The annual pedestrian zone typically runs from May long weekend until Thanksgiving weekend.