Parks Canada derails Banff townsite-to-Norquay gondola plan

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A bid to construct a gondola from the Banff townsite to Mount Norquay has been stopped in its tracks by Parks Canada.

After saying it’s been turned down twice by the federal company, which has closing say in such developments, Banff Park Supt. Salman Rasheed delivered the identical message in a tersely worded letter submitted to Banff city council’s public listening to Wednesday.

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“Once more, our evaluation famous that the proposed gondola from the ARP (space redevelopment plan) web site to the Mount Norquay ski space has been assessed twice and located to not be possible as a result of non-conformance with key park coverage and laws,” Rasheed mentioned within the letter.

Whereas he mentioned modifications within the plan’s third draft are appreciated, “it stays the view of Parks Canada that the draft ARP doesn’t totally conform with relevant federal statutes and rules.”

In 2020, Parks Canada rejected a plan for a gondola extending from the city to the highest of the resort’s mountain.

It has mentioned its development would prolong growth exterior the ski hill’s boundary, which might violate environment-related limits on such exercise in Banff Nationwide Park.

“We imagine all these insurance policies and devices are elementary to defending the park’s ecology and assets unimpaired for future generations. Parks Canada shouldn’t be keen to alter them to accommodate this proposal,” then-park superintendent Dave McDonough wrote in a December 2019 letter to Jan Waterous, whose firm, Liricon Capital, was proposing the gondola.

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Rasheed mentioned Parks Canada got here to an analogous conclusion of non-conformance in September 2022, and with out assembly that standards an environmental evaluation can’t be performed.

The gondola’s terminus is a part of a plan to redevelop railway station lands within the Banff townsite, which, together with Mount Norquay, is owned by Liricon. The corporate can also be proposing a passenger rail hyperlink from Calgary to the mountain resort city.

The 17.5-hectare web site can be remodeled right into a promenade with retail outlets, eating places and residential, and an enlargement of the present parking house.

Gondola proponent says Parks Canada meddling in municipal affairs

Liricon has mentioned a brand new gondola would seize a few of the market from its Sulphur Mountain competitor, thus decreasing vehicular visitors within the city.

In a written response to Parks Canada’s newest refusal, Waterous mentioned she’s annoyed with the federal physique’s obstruction of plans rooted in environmental sustainability.

“Parks Canada is now elevating a spurious concern a couple of potential gondola terminus within the ARP, which is key to creating the multimodal transit hub economically sustainable,” she acknowledged.

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“Addressing car congestion in Banff has been a main concern for many years of each residents and guests. We took on these tasks to scale back this congestion because of Parks Canada’s failure to deal with vehicular visitors. This failure has been detrimental to each the ecological integrity and customer expertise within the park.”

She mentioned amongst six errors it made in its conclusion, Parks Canada has confused an earlier proposed gondola that may prolong to Norquay’s summit with a later plan to construct a smaller model that terminates on the ski resort’s base, which has not been assessed.

Parks Canada, she mentioned, has additionally not assessed the gondola proposal twice. “Norquay has not made a second gondola proposal submission thus far.”

A lot of the opposition to the general plan targeted on growth of the Banff railway lands, however the gondola part “would nonetheless contribute to the cumulative impression to the world and the quantity of elevated human presence that may detract from predictability and motion for wildlife,” Katie Morrison, government director of the southern Alberta Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, mentioned in a written submission.

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Waterous mentioned Parks Canada is interfering in municipal affairs and that the city shouldn’t settle for it.

“City council’s potential to characterize the group shouldn’t be prematurely thwarted by Parks Canada administration,” she acknowledged.

“City council should not blindly comply with no matter Parks Canada administration determines. In such a case, city council would don’t have any energy and the city would successfully be run by the unelected Parks Canada administration.”

BKaufmann@postmedia.com

X (Twitter) @BillKaufmannjrn

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