By Steve Hubrecht
[email protected]
Invermere council received a letter from a local resident asking that the district considering making 7th Avenue (Invermere’s main street) pedestrian only in the downtown for the summer. Council members, recalling the flurry of opinion, a good deal of it quite negative, that mere mention of such an idea stirred last year, were quick to outline that this is not an option on the table.
Resident Stefanie Mclellan wrote that having recently visited her old home of Kimberley, and wandered through the pedestrian-only Platzl area there, “I thought how wonderful it would be if Invermere had a downtown that was focussed on people, not cars.”
Mclellan suggested that the planned downtown revitalization is a great opportunity to put this idea into practice.
“The downtown core will feel less like a thoroughfare and more like a place to linger, shop, dine and enjoy. Especially in COVID-19 times, but even beyond, giving restaurants and businesses an opportunity to spread outside and having more patio dining will greatly enhance the appeal of Invermere’s downtown,” she wrote. “This summer would be a great time to try this out, before you start construction, by placing temporary barriers.”
Council members unanimously pointed out that with a number of downtown businesses strongly opposed to blocking traffic off 7th Avenue, a pedestrian-free downtown is simply not in the cards.
“I appreciate the letter. I often think that when I go to Kimberley too, that it’s lovely to walk along the Platzl. But I fear there would be a major backlash from many other individuals if we tried shutting down the downtown to traffic. We got pushback last year just by suggesting that businesses could put out a patio if they wanted instead of the parking spots,” said councillor Kayja Becker. “So while I like the idea, Stephanie, if you’re watching (digitally), thanks for the suggestion, but it would take a lot of discussions to make anything close to that happen. Even one-way traffic (on main street) would be a whole fiasco.”
“It’s something the business community, as a whole, would have to come forward with, if we were to consider it,” added Invermere mayor Al Miller.
Councillor Gerry Taft concurred with Becker and Miller, recalling the controversy that erupted last year at the slightest suggestion of the possibility of perhaps making the downtown pedestrian-only.
“That did upset a number of business owners in the downtown core. I think that, as mayor Miller indicated, these types of changes have to come from the business community,” said Taft. “If anything the push (from downtown businesses) owners is for more parking (downtown), not less parking…Obviously, there is a balance. You need to encourage human (pedestrian) traffic as much as vehicle traffic, but a closed main street with no programming, nothing going on, is going to be a very quiet, empty street.”
“I remember very well last year. We simply suggested that was an option. Not saying we were going to do it, but that it was an option…And we heard fairly clearly from a few businesses that that should not be happening,” said Miller.
