A pedestrian-only zone in the heart of Banff, Alta., will be dismantled after residents voted Monday in favour of getting rid of the traffic-free area.
Unofficial results released Monday night show 1,328 people voted no to the question: Do you support Banff town council’s decision to have a downtown pedestrian zone on Banff Avenue every summer, from the May long weekend to the Thanksgiving long weekend.
Unofficial results show 1,194 people voted yes.
Banff Mayor Connie DiManno said there was a lot of passion on both sides of the debate.
“Residents are emotionally exhausted from this topic,” she said Tuesday. “We will move forward and embrace the result of this vote.”
The two-block pedestrian-only zone along Banff Avenue was implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic as a way to promote social distancing and has been in place every summer since.
Council then decided to make the pedestrian zone a permanent fixture from the May long weekend to the Thanksgiving long weekend.
While the traffic-free area has been popular with some, a petition was launched by residents earlier this year who were against the pedestrian zone. Some of their concerns included traffic being pushed from Banff Avenue into nearby neighbourhoods, the potential blockage of evacuation routes and business inequity.
Council must now pass a bylaw to rescind its original decision to have an annual summer pedestrian zone. The next council meeting where a bylaw can be passed is on Aug. 26.
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The pedestrian zone’s public amenities, including extra public seating, bicycle parking and flower planters, will be dismantled in the days after the bylaw is passed, according to the town. This also means restaurant patios and retail displays will be taken down to make way for vehicles.
Leslie Taylor, one of the people behind the petition to get rid of the pedestrian zone, said now that the vote is done, the issue of traffic congestion needs to be addressed.
“We look forward to talking with everybody about the problem we can all agree on, which is that we have too many vehicles in our limited small town and we have to figure out what to do about that without wrecking our residential neighbourhoods to do it.”
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DiManno agreed, saying something needs to be done about the vehicle traffic. But she also added that the town will continue to do everything it can to “pedestrianize” Banff.
“No matter which side of the vote you were on, a shared challenge is that we just have too many vehicles on our road network. And it was very clear that a large portion of our residents saw the detour onto side streets as a tipping point,” DiManno said.
“We need to work together and with Parks Canada to come up with solutions for keeping cars out of our town. Either parking on the periphery or coming by mass transit.”
Banff’s mayor said on any given day, upwards of 40,000 people use that stretch of Banff Avenue, making it very congested and crowded. DiManno also wanted to reassure visitors that the vote does not reflect upon them.
“Visitors really love the pedestrian zone and I want them to know that this vote was not a comment about visitors. We love our visitors and we are so proud to welcome them.”
The Town of Banff said official results of the vote will be confirmed on Tuesday.
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