Council approved amendments to the Festival and Special Events Policy C5001. Changes include allowing no more than 10 per cent of personal services vendors at farmers markets, seasonal markets, etc. Personal services may include massage therapy, face painting and temporary tattoos. Neighbourhood block parties have also been removed from the policy. Small community street parties or block parties will be managed through a separate administrative procedure.
Council voted against getting a detailed concept design of a bike lane option for Banff Avenue. The option proposed would have explored the concept of narrowing driving lanes on Banff Avenue from Marmot Crescent to Wolf Street to allow for a bike lane in both the northbound and southbound lanes. The majority of council felt it was not the correct option for the road.
Council voted to continue the solar PV incentive program for 2018 to encourage homeowners and businesses to install solar panels. Council allocated $50,000 from the environmental reserve to fund the program this year, and that as in 2017, the Town will match the current provincial solar incentive, which consists of an up-front rebate in which participants are funded at a rate of $0.75/Watt of solar capacity installed, to a maximum of 7.5 kW. Council also voted to continue to waive development and building permit fees associated with these installations. Applications for this year’s solar program are available at
http://banff.ca/solar.
Council directed administration to apply for a 25 per cent grant from the Alberta Municipal Solar Program for a 24 kW system on the Transit-Fleet Building and to allocate $42,000 from the environmental reserve to fund the balance of project costs, if successful in securing the grant. The Transit-Fleet Shop is one of the Town’s newest and largest available roofs, has no shading, slight slope, and is a significant consumer of electricity (197,100kWh in 2017). Council also voted that, if the Town failed to secure the grant, that administration return to council with the project during budget deliberations for consideration for full funding.
Council received a briefing on the location of this year’s Banff Farmer’s Market. The market has been located in the parking lot in the 200 block of Bear Street for the past several years to highlight the Bear Street Woonerff project. In 2018, the market will return to its original location in the Central Park parking lot. The market will be held on Wednesdays from May 23 to October 3, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Council received a briefing on third party event reporting. The Town requires reports or plans for traffic management, parking, communications, safety/medical, and towards zero waste from events. Council directed administration to return with a report on a post event summary template event producers could use to provide details to council.