The Town of Banff is making progress on one of its key strategic goals – housing.
During a review and update on the 2023-26 strategic plan on Nov. 12, council was told plans to accelerate housing construction are in full swing, with an anticipated 150 development permits expected to be issued by spring.
Darren Enns, director of planning and environment for the Town of Banff, said smaller projects are coming in “fast and furious”, while medium and larger projects are taking more time to make their way towards application.
”The applications that are able to move forward in the most nimble and quick fashion are those that are simplest and smallest, so what we’ve seen initially is a significant uptick in things like accessory dwellings,” he said during the governance and finance committee meeting.
“What takes a bit more lead time is more complex multi-family projects and those are the ones that take months to get an application put together but obviously yield a much higher bang for buck when they do come in.”
Banff was successful in getting $4.66 million through the federal Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF), a $4 billion federal funding program for municipalities designed to remove barriers to build more homes, faster.
In an effort to accelerate housing builds in Banff, council this year made several land use bylaw and policy amendments, including density increases and elimination of required parking, and hired staff with HAF funding to accelerate development permits and support applicants.
In addition, the accessory dwelling incentive program was launched this summer and a $41 million affordable housing development at 50 Wolf St., which will incorporate 50 to 60 below-market rental and homeownership units, was approved this fall.
Under the HAF agreement, Banff is expected to bring on at least 240 new housing units by 2027, including 43 below-market units.
Town officials say there are plans to bring a report back to council detailing the exact number of development permits issued when the required year one report to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) under the HAF agreement is submitted at the end of January 2025.
“The planning department has been very engaged in meeting with a number of folks who are looking very seriously at creation of housing,” said Alison Gerrits, director of community services for the Town of Banff.
Other top priorities of the 2023-26 strategic plan for 2024 included completion of the Banff community plan, launch of climate action engagement and the clean energy improvement plan, Indigenous naming of the Banff recreation grounds multi-use pavilion, and the railway lands area redevelopment plan (ARP).
The goal was to have a consolidated draft community plan before the governance and finance committee this year.
“We hope to have something ready for public review by January,” said Town Manager Kelly Gibson.
As for the council-approved area redevelopment plan for the railway lands, Enns said it has been submitted to Parks Canada for regulatory review.
“We have met on that issue with them and it’s moving forward, I would suggest, is the best synopsis,” he said.
Council’s priorities for 2025, which can be reviewed or updated during the upcoming service review process that gets underway later this month, include improving Banff’s resilience to disasters, severe weather and climate-related emergencies.
The Town also has plans for an advocacy campaign for mass transit between Calgary and Banff.
Gibson said there are currently no details on what the advocacy campaign could look like, adding budget may also need to push this priority back until 2026.
“The difficulty is staffing to do it … advocacy takes a lot of time,” he said.
