Focus Group on Future of Banff Ave

The Town of Banff hosted a full house on November 21 at the Public Workshop on the future of Banff Avenue downtown.

If you are a business leader who was not one of the 145 people at the session, there is an upcoming session just for business leaders and BLLHA/BLLT members. This is the same presentation and questions as at the public workshop. Space is limited so registration is required:

Tuesday, December 5

2 – 3 p.m. (Presentation starts at 2 p.m.)

Mount Royal Hotel

RSVP is required due to limited space (40 ppl max) by emailing communications@banff.ca

Currently, there is no plan for a Pedestrian Zone in 2024. Town Council will make decisions on Dec. 18 about short-term and long-term plans for Banff Avenue.

This focus group will collect feedback for Council on what people liked and didn’t like about the pedestrian zone. Council also asked for design concepts on potential infrastructure changes to make the street function better for pedestrians. The design concepts will help us discuss features and spark new ideas.

Come to the workshop to learn about past changes on Banff Ave., current pressures and have your say on what you would like to see on Banff Ave in the future?

Other focus group sessions for seniors, young adults, customers of the Banff Legion and transportation professionals are listed at banffviewpoints.ca/banffave

Reusable Items Projects Launches

The Banff Reusable container program is ready to launch. Banff food & beverage businesses are invited to an info session about a Phase 1 of the project for reusable beverage and food containers:

Tuesday, November 28, 3 - 5 p.m.

Banff Town Hall – Council Chambers

The project is a partnership of Town of Banff, Banff & Lake Louise Tourism, Banff and Lake Louise Hospitality Association, Biosphere Institute of the Bow Valley and Muuse to provide reusable food ware for businesses. At this session reusable cups will be available for businesses to try out. There will be a short presentation and discussion of:

• How the Muuse program works for consumers
• How the Muuse program works for vendors
• The goals of the project from the perspective of the different stakeholders



More info about the pilot project: muuse.io/banff

New Year Brings New Rules for Single Use Items Reduction Bylaw

Banff’s Single-use Item Reduction Bylaw was implemented in phases to help reduce waste and to highlight the need for waste-reduction practices in a national park. It targets items that can easily be avoided or replaced with reusable options.

Phase 2 starts on January 1, 2024:

A. In Banff, new plastic shopping bags are banned:

• Businesses and event organizers must not provide NEW plastic shopping bags to customers, and must allow customers to use their own bags for shopping.
• Businesses may provide paper or reusable bags, if requested, and businesses must charge a minimum fee on paper ($0.25) and reusable ($2) bags and these fees shall be listed separately on a receipt.



B. Banff businesses are required to provide reusable food ware for dine-in services:

• Businesses such as restaurants, cafes and bars must provide reusable food ware, such as plates, bowls, cups, cutlery and other accessory items, for any food or beverages consumed on the premises. 
• Businesses must ask and may rely on the customer’s stated intention as to whether they are staying or going.
• Existing businesses can apply for an exemption if they cannot accommodate on-site or off-site dishwashing facilities due to space, financial or other special circumstances. 
• All new food and beverage businesses must provide a minimum of 10 seats, on-site dishwashing facilities and reusable food ware to be licenced to operate in Banff.

More details about the bylaw are at banff.ca/SingleUse

If you have questions about implementing the requirements for your food and beverage services, email zerowaste@banff.ca

Banff Housing Action

The Town of Banff is exploring financial grants and incentives, zoning changes, reductions in requirements for parking and set-backs from property lines, and other initiatives to stimulate more housing in Banff. Although the Town is developing plans for its next affordable housing project, with more than 250 units in the Tatanga area, the community needs more private development to address the significant shortage.

Other changes being examined include increasing height limits; grants for homeowners to create secondary rental suites in their property; revising cash-in-lieu payments that businesses can pay when they expand and need more staff, if they don’t add housing; creating a vacancy land or underutilized property tax category to motivate development of housing; establishing a maximum dwelling size to ensure efficient use of land; and allowing multi-unit developments in all residential zones.

Banff Town Council reviews proposed changes at the November 29 Governance & Finance Committee meeting, stating at 9 a.m. and they will debate grants and incentives in service review, scheduled for December 6.

• Download meeting agendas at banff.ca/agendacentre
• Watch the meetings live at banff.ca/live
• Submit comments about agenda items at banff.ca/PublicSubmissions

Town Seeks Input for 2024 Budget Debate

The Town of Banff will start 2024 Service Review and Budget deliberations on December 4, and requests input on budget priorities at the beginning of each of the six days scheduled for discussion. The service descriptions and budgets for all municipal departments, and the schedule of topics is published online on November 28.

The budget documents identify each municipal department’s services that the community relies on every day – from snow clearing and road/sidewalk maintenance to public transit and traffic management, from police and fire protection to housing, parks and recreation, and from community and social services to water, sewer and garbage/recycling/composting services.

The municipality has property taxes as the main way to fund all programs. Due to inflationary pressures and the need to build back reserves after the 2020 tax cut of 17%, the starting point for the tax increase is more than 10% for 2024. Learn about the budgets, schedule of discussion and ways to provide input at banff.ca/servicereview

Join the Online Panel to Participate in the Quarterly Snapshots Survey

We’re seeking opinions and ideas from BanffViewpoints panel members on a variety of topics affecting the Banff community with a quarterly survey. Aggregated results from the surveys will be published on the BanffViewpoints Snapshots Survey page. Most topics are about municipal programs, but some topics will be about other issues affecting people in Banff.

Only Banffites who sign up to join the BanffViewpoints online panel can provide input. We ask for demographic information to determine if feedback is representative of our community, based on the official census. No personal information is connected to survey submissions or and no personal information is shared with anyone outside the survey team.

This month we’re asking questions about the new single-use items reduction bylaw; suggestions for Parks Canada and about transit and active transportation. We also ask for opinions about budget spending.

Join the panel by clicking the Register button at banffviewpoints.ca and you will be invited to take the upcoming Snapshots survey.