Petition to overturn Banff pedestrian zone deemed valid

Article content material

A petition to overturn the City of Banff’s choice to have an annual pedestrian zone on Banff Avenue was declared legitimate this week.

City supervisor Kelly Gibson mentioned the petition was submitted on March 1 by a member of the group who was accountable for gathering signatures.

Article content material

“City employees went by means of a course of to evaluate all the signatures on the petition, transferring all the info right into a spreadsheet to search for duplicate entries and make notes on every other inconsistencies with the necessities of Alberta’s Municipal Authorities Act,” Gibson mentioned, including that every entry was additionally verified by both cellphone or e-mail.

Article content material

The overall variety of signatures collected was 1,114, and of these, 1,019 have been deemed legitimate. The unaccounted entries have been both duplicate data, illegible, or didn’t have a legitimate road tackle listed.

Mayor Corrie DiManno mentioned council will evaluate the bylaw on Might 13 and accordingly make selections on find out how to proceed.

“I proceed to respect the democratic course of because it pertains to the petition, and I respect the CAO’s dedication that it’s a legitimate petition. As effectively, the residents who organized and signed the petition have completely been heard by means of this course of,” DiManno mentioned.

Former Banff mayor and city councillor Leslie Taylor spearheaded the petition and beforehand informed Postmedia {that a} main inconvenience is that the pedestrian zone has precipitated visitors congestion for individuals who dwell on residential streets.

“The circulation of our entire city is designed round Banff Avenue, and so all of the business visitors — the vehicles, the buses, the customer autos — that’s all diverted onto slim residential streets. We’re primarily blocking our foremost artery and redirecting that circulation elsewhere, into roads that aren’t designed for it,” she mentioned.

Article content material

Determination anticipated Might 13

Council is required to cross the primary studying inside 30 days, which is deliberate for the Might 13 council assembly.

“As a result of the pedestrian zone opens that following weekend on Might lengthy weekend, it’s probably council will decide on the thirteenth whether or not they’ll both cross second or third studying, which might rescind the choice and there wouldn’t be a pedestrian zone — or they may additionally go to a vote of the voters, which is a binding vote, after which they’ve 90 days from that,” mentioned Gibson.

It’s the precise bylaw that cancels the pedestrian zone; if it goes to a vote of the voters, there would nonetheless be a pedestrian zone till a ultimate choice is made.

The city used the 2017 census, which had a inhabitants of 8,865, to calculate the ten per cent minimal variety of signatures required for the petition, which might be 887 signatures.

“If it goes to the vote of voters, that’s binding for 3 years; if council decides to rescind, that’s not a binding choice, so they may evaluate it once more. I’m unsure that they’d, nevertheless it could possibly be reviewed if the choice was rescinded,” Gibson mentioned.

The annual pedestrian zone runs from Might lengthy weekend till Thanksgiving weekend.

Share this text in your social community