Council update, 22 May 2011

Hello everyone:

 

I hope you’re having a great long weekend!  Because of the holiday on Monday, council this weel will be on Tuesday afternoon, at 2 pm in council chambers.  As always, you are very welcome to attend. 

 

 

You can see the full council package at this link:

 

Highlights include:

 

 

Some of you will be familiar with the success of public bike rental systems such as Velib in Paris.  The BCHS Socials 30 class is coming to council with a proposal that we do something similar here in Banff.  They’ve been working with Mayor Sorensen on how to present such an idea, and will be coming to council with their presentation on Tuesday.  You can see the full text starting on page 4 of the package.

 

I would love to have a system like this in Banff, and look forward to discussing their idea with the students.

 

 

Starting on page 13 of the package, you can read the Town’s audited financial statements for 2010, which are coming to council for approval before being sent to the provincial Municipal Affairs department.  In general, you’ll see that the value of our tangible capital assets has increased and our indebtedness has increased.  These changes are largely due to the Recreation Centre project.  On page 29 of the package, you can see detailed information about the nature and timing of our debt and debt repayments.  Page 30 of the package shows that we are well within the debt and debt servicing limits required by Alberta Municipal Affairs.  Council continues to operate on the policy that our capital reserves may be temporarily in the red, but our capital planning must always take us to a positive balance within five years.

 

 

Starting on page 70 of the package, you’ll see a report about reintroducing pedi-cabs into Banff.  If council wants to do this, then we need to keep in mind several things:

·         The traffic bylaw would need to be amended

·         We would need to set a top number for total pedicabs, plus a top number for pedicabs operated by any one operator

·         The Municipal Planning Commission would need to consider conditions on the development permit, such things as: routes, location and nature of storage, pickup, drop-off and parking

 

I’m inclined to support this, but I do think there are major conditions to be imposed in order to make sure that pedicabs don’t interfere with other vehicles’ movement or parking.

 

 

Council is being asked to approve the use of red, 3 ft x 3 ft sidewalk stickers to advertise locations at which Banff Culture Weekend events are taking place.  These locations are 3 commercial galleries plus the Whyte Museum.  We are being asked to permit the signs to remain in place for 65 days, because there are three-day events planned at either end of that period.

 

Last year, these signs were approved by administration for installation just before Banff Culture weekend in August, and removal before September 28.  They were eventually removed in early November.

 

In general, I do not believe that the public realm should be used to advertize individual businesses.  An approval of this proposal would logically lead to similar signs outside each restaurant for Food and Wine festivals, outside each bike shop for Bike Fest, and so on.

 

As well, we have a 14-day limit on special event signage for a reason.  I’m surprised that Planning staff would recommend leaving special event signage in place for 59 non-event days between two sets of three-day events.  I look forward to hearing why they believe that should be done.  You can see the report starting on page 84 of the package.

 

 

June 13 is proposed as Banff’s official municipal census date.  “What?” you exclaim, “I just filled out my census two weeks ago!”  Yes, you’re right, but that was the federal census and this is our town census.  We’re required to do this by the province, and it’s a good thing, because we ask questions about housing, transportation and social programs that don’t get covered on the feds’ short-form census.  Having accurate information on population numbers plus these other items helps us make the case for grant money for various projects, thus saving the Banff taxpayers’ money.  The full report starts on page 95 of the package.

 

 

As always, the opinions expressed in this post are mine alone, and I’m not pretending that they’re the official opinions of the Town of Banff or its Council.  I welcome your questions or comments!

 

All the best until next time -- Leslie