council update, special edition
Hello everyone:
I don’t normally burden you with extra emails, but there are a couple of things going on right now that may cause people some concern, so I’d like to give you some background.
NOT A TOWN SURVEY
An alert reader (thank you, JB!) let me know that he was contacted by a phone survey a couple of days ago. The survey person asked for his opinions on the “Ban-iff” (!) water and wastewater services. He emailed me to ask if the town is doing this, and if so, why.
I checked with the town manager and this is *not* a survey being done by the town. We have no idea who is doing it, or why. If any of you happen to be surveyed and happen to find out who the client is, I’d love to know.
I hope they call me! I’d be delighted to tell them that we have drinking water so good that I dream about it when I’m travelling elsewhere, and that we are very proud of the excellent quality of our wastewater treatment.
WHAT DID COUNCIL *ACTUALLY* SAY/DO ABOUT FORMULA RESTAURANTS ON MONDAY?
Having read this week’s Crag editorial, I’m concerned that you may get an odd impression of council’s discussion last Monday about chain businesses. Of course, it’s not official until the minutes are approved, but here’s my personal recollection of how things played out:
As I mentioned in my last email update, council received the report from the Land Use Bylaw working group on Monday. Stav Karlos came very well prepared with a series of motions, so that council could give clear direction about how we want to move forward.
On the motion to outright ban all formula businesses from here on, council voted no. However, there was general interest in exploring the “quota” idea brought forward by the working group report – in other words, defining what “balance” means by putting an actual number on how many formula businesses are OK. This might be a percentage, as in “no more than 30% of our restaurants will be formula-based”. Or it might be a number, as in “at any one time, we will have no more than 30 formula-based restaurants in Banff”. Based on what I hear, most people believe that zero is too low – they see a place in our community for some formula fast food or some formula retail. Most people believe that 100% would be way too many – they want lots of small, unique businesses here. So the answer falls somewhere in between.
Council passed a motion to have the planning people draft a process that will engage public input to come up with an appropriate quota level for formula-based restaurants and retail. They’ll bring the draft process back to council, and – once it’s approved – we’ll be asking for your opinions. Our goal is still to finish the Land Use Bylaw review by the end of 2012, so all this will be happening fairly soon. I’ll keep you informed so that you can have your say.
THE FINE PRINT
As always, this post represents my own personal opinions, and does not purport to represent the opinions of the Town of Banff or its Council. I welcome your comments!
All the best until next time -- Leslie