Banff visitors can rev up their engines after residents voted to do away with a controversial pedestrian only zone in the heart of the mountain town.In a plebiscite Monday, 1,328 people voted to remove the barricades while 1,194 voted to keep it. About 2,523 of 4,450 eligible votes were cast. Final results will be certified today.By comparison, about 2,090 people voted in the 2021 municipal election. The plebiscite was triggered after 1,019 residents representing about 12% of the population signed a petition earlier this spring..That means council will meet later this month on August 26 to pass a formal bylaw permanently opening Banff Avenue — one of the most photographed spots in Canada — to vehicle traffic on a year round basis.According to the Town of Banff website, the pedestrian zone amenities will be dismantled starting in the days immediately after the bylaw is passed, including removal of extra public seating, bicycle parking and flower planters. Restaurant patios and retail displays will be dismantled, followed by changing traffic light signal timing at Wolf Street, Buffalo Street and coordination with lights on Spray Avenue. Finally, the gates that allow Roam Transit to enter the pedestrian zone will be removed along with the large planter barricades at each end of the pedestrian zone and on Caribou Street, and the road will be reopened to all vehicles..”The resounding message of concern is having too many vehicles on our finite road system.”Banff Mayor Corrie DiManno.The pedestrian zone had previously been implemented in the summer of 2020 as a way for local restaurants and businesses to skirt social distancing restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic.But residents complained all it did was divert traffic through side streets and residential neighborhoods. Businesses that weren’t on the main thoroughfare complained it wasn’t fair to allow some businesses to have expanded patios but not others.Some said it created a safety hazard in the need for evacuation.By some estimates, as many as 40,000 people congregate in the area on a busy summer day..Parks Canada — which has the final say on land use in the townsite — was opposed to the pedestrian zone because it felt it was a thinly disguised attempt to get around a federally legislated cap on the amount of commercial floorspace.Both supporters and opponents noted the need for a traffic solution and broader concerns about ‘over tourism’.Banff Mayor Corrie DiManno told local media the issue of vehicle traffic will still need to be addressed due to the townsite’s federally legislated permitted land use.“We heard many reasons why folks didn’t want to keep the pedestrian zone, but the resounding message of concern is having too many vehicles on our finite road system. I believe this is a shared community concern no matter how people voted on the pedestrian zone.”
