Banff nailing down extra parking options for summer

Banff will test several new measures this summer to help deal with the tourist town's parking woes as an alternate to building a massive parkade.

The town will acquire a lot north of the current Beaver Street surface parking lot to yield another 28 spaces. The price tag is $883,000, including the cost of the land acquisition.

As well, the parking duration will be changed from 12 hours to three hours in the Bear Street parkade, while long-term parking will be relocated to the Cascade Plaza parkade as of July 1.

In addition, the town will also use the Banff Community High School parking lot this summer, securing 31 more spots for 12-hour parking. Parking will only be permitted there from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. to address residents' concerns of noise.

These measures will provide 109 spaces in the downtown area. The parking shortage is presently estimated to be 125 stalls, reaching as high as 285 spaces by commercial build-out.

Evelyne Labelle, the Town of Banff's engineering manager, said 92 per cent of visitors to Banff arrive in private vehicles and that the regional visitation market is increasing.

She said despite the short five-minute walk downtown, the Canadian Pacific lot was not successful as an intercept lot last summer during the Banff Refreshing revitalization project.

"The key need is for short-term visitor parking," said Labelle. "Convenience is paramount and proximity to the downtown core is crucial."

Coun. Stavros Karlos supported the initiatives, but said he does not believe it is an appropriate long-term strategy to address Banff's parking shortage.

"I ask those councillors who voted against a parkade to reconsider their decision," he said.

"That said, some of these short-term solutions, could help alleviate the problem a bit."

The costs for acquiring the lot at 219 Beaver Street, near the current surface parking lot, include approximately $750,000 for the acquisition of the land and $35,000 to demolish the existing structures.

The rest of the $883,000 will be spent on disconnecting utilities, site grading, paving, signage, pavement marking and storm water management. Annual operating costs would be about $3,300.

The new lot would yield 28 parking stalls at an approximate cost of $31,500 per stall. Possession date would be January 1, 2009, with site work completed by next spring, ready for opening at the end of June, 2009.

To deal with the summer parking shortage, administration is doing an analysis on the potential to increase the frequency of the public transit service, including costs for new buses, for the 2009 budget discussions.

Cost to increase the frequency to every 15 minutes would be $1.6 million, plus $922,000 in yearly operating costs. For every 10 minutes, the costs jump to $3.9 million, plus $1.8 million in annual operating expenses. These figures don't account for revenues.

The town is also exploring the feasibility of providing all hotel and campground guests with some form of transit pass to showcase and encourage use of the public buses, in partnership with local hotel operators and Parks Canada.

Coun. Leslie Taylor said that having such a program for guests at the Tunnel Mountain campground is crucial.

"Campgrounds are a very important piece of this puzzle," she said. "Those are the folks we can be 95 per cent sure are getting back into their cars and coming downtown."