No go: Banff votes to get rid of pedestrian zone

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.

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.

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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.

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.”

The Town of Banff said official results of the vote will be confirmed on Tuesday.