BANFF – A temporary moratorium may be put on new bed and breakfast home licences until Banff council has made a final decision on the plan to reduce the existing town-wide B&B quota as one way to deal with the housing crunch.
Council has voted 3-2 to direct administration to draft an amendment to the business licence bylaw to impose a temporary suspension on issuing new B&B home business licences until council has approved the new B&B regulations that have been in the works for four years.
Coun. Barb Pelham, who put forward the notice of motion at the June 26 council meeting, said she wanted to stress the temporary moratorium would not apply to existing B&B homes, those homes seeking renewal, or development applications already submitted.
“This is a pause, temporarily, on issuing new bed and breakfast home business licences until this council comes to consensus on the revised bylaw, it receives three readings and ministerial consent,” she said.
“I simply want to hang on to all of our existing inventory until this council firms up our direction for the future of bed and breakfasts.”
Pelham, who has sat on the Municipal Planning Commission (MPC) for four years as both councillor and public member, said MPC recognized the trends with B&B applications as far back as 2019.
Since joining MPC in 2019, Pelham said she has counted 14 applications that attributed to the attrition of 20 housing units.
“Request after request, homeowners were converting basement suites, over-the-garage suites to bed and breakfast suites,” she said.
“In doing so, for the most part, these homeowners were one by one evicting residents to convert their spaces into tourist accommodations.”
In 2019, MPC referred this issue to the council, who then voted to create a B&B working group to assess the regulations.
The working group made recommendations which circled back to MPC for review, but much work was held up by the COVID-19 pandemic.
This current council began discussions on B&B regulations at a governance and finance committee meeting on May 8, directing administration to draft bylaw changes to cap the number of B&Bs at 36, with 15 of those set aside for designated municipal heritage buildings.
The existing B&B quota is 65, but there are currently about 40 B&B homes and eight B&B inns. A reduction in the cap would not affect inns.
Under the change proposed by council, all existing B&B homes would be grandfathered until such time as they closed, sold or had their permits revoked for violating rules over time – which could take years and years.
Since the May 8 meeting when council signalled its intent to reduce the number of B&Bs in the future, planning and development has received three B&B applications, which are conditionally approved.
Pelham said Banff is short about 700 to 1,000 housing units, pointing to Banff’s 2023 resident satisfaction survey, which indicated housing and a lack of affordable housing is the No. 1 reason for the decline in quality of life in Banff.
She said the survey found 60 per cent of residents find living in Banff is unaffordable and 44 per cent of residents state homelessness, poverty and affordable housing are top-of-mind primarily related to housing.
“It is the No. 1 community issue,” said Pelham.
“We need to look at every solution possible. What we have been doing simply is not enough.”
April Wood, who owns At Wits End B&B, voiced strong opposition to a moratorium and said the concept of reducing the B&B quota was unanimously rejected by the B&B working group at the start of this lengthy process.
She said she fears a moratorium could financially affect B&B owners who are considering selling their homes and open the Town of Banff up to legal liability.
“I believe it would put the town of Banff at compromise of legal action,” she said.
Wood said it is unreasonable to change a bylaw to put a moratorium in place without going through a public process.
She also said reducing B&B numbers takes away opportunities for residents to find a way to make a living in the community.
“If you take away the one last tool from someone of having an affordable home in our town, where are they going to go? People are leaving our community because they can’t stay here, they can’t afford it,” she said.
“You are asking to take that way until we go through a public process, which is when, let’s be real, this is a no-end date and I’m telling you it’s been going on for five years already, and the conversation is just getting muddier.”
Town Manager Kelly Gibson stressed the proposed moratorium would not apply to existing B&B owners like Wood.
He also said preliminary discussions with the Town’s legal counsel, Reynolds Mirth Richards & Farmer, indicate the municipality can put a moratorium on business licences until council makes a final decision on the potential reduction of the B&B quota.
“I believe it can be done legally … we would have RMR draft the wording for that and that would include legal review obviously,” he said.
Pelham said council is looking at the housing crisis holistically, adding she is aware B&Bs are not the sole creators of Banff’s housing problem and there are many factors that have created a complex housing situation.
Along with evaluating the number of B&Bs in town, she said there have been recent discussions about eliminating cash-in-lieu for new commercial development, reviewing zoning, setbacks, floor area ratios, building heights, and facilitating the development permit process.
“The B&B metric is just one of those factors that we may choose to adjust,” said Pelham.
Coun. Chip Olver, who has previously held a seat at the MPC table, supported the call for a moratorium.
During her time on MPC, she recalled the difficulty approving B&B licences that took away homes where residents are living.
“If our goal is to house our residents, it doesn’t make sense to reduce the housing stock in this way,” she said.
“I will support this moratorium understanding that it is temporary and that there’s another review of the B&B policy happening.”
Coun. Hugh Pettigrew, whose wife operates a B&B in Banff, voted against any move to put a moratorium in place.
Having declared a conflict of interest previously, Pettigrew said he got legal advice just before Monday’s meeting that he could take part in the discussion and vote on the notice of motion for a moratorium.
“In a few occasions with respect to B&B topics, I have stepped aside using an overabundance of caution,” he said, noting he sought legal advice following the May governance and finance committee when he did declare a conflict.
“Since the moratorium is only dealing with future applications and not with any current ones, I was cleared and comfortable to participate in yesterday’s discussion.”
Pettigrew believes there are better ways to deal with the housing crunch.
“I am having a hard time with this one,” he said. “I am concerned this is not the branch that we should be going after at this time.”
Mayor Corrie DiManno supported the move, however wishes council had considered a temporary moratorium earlier given three applications have been conditionally approved since the May 8 meeting.
“It’s unfortunate then, that that has created a level of unfairness that those folks got in and future ones won’t be able to,” she said.
“We need to hit pause because moving forward that’s the most fair and equitable way to treat this whole situation.”
The amendment to the bylaw to impose a temporary moratorium on business licenses comes back to council on July 10.
