Recently Jasper’s municipal council has demonstrated some regulatory inventiveness, in an effort to hurdle legal roadblocks that are hampering local interests.
This year it has once again approved a pilot project that allows the Jasper Local Food Society to hold its farmer’s market in the parking lot of the McCready Centre.
Last year the market enjoyed incredible success at the location, and most people—especially the society— agree that it is the best place to hold it.
The problem is that town bylaws only allow non-profit organizations two event permits a year for the same location. And since the town doesn’t have a bylaw that governs commercial use of public land (which the McCready parking lot is), administration has no way to approve more event permits for the market.
In most other towns, the idea of holding a pilot project two years in a row for the exact same thing would be bonkers—the whole point of a pilot is to try something one time to see if it works—but in Jasper it’s a creative solution to a problem arising from incomplete legislation.
At its March 17 meeting, council will vote on a different pilot project to allow some restaurants to set up outdoor seating on the town’s sidewalks.
Much like the farmer’s market being held at the McCready Centre, most people agree that sidewalk seating in Jasper is a good idea. Restauranteurs have been calling for it for years, but have run into the same public land bylaw issue that the market has, and those requests have been continuously pushed aside.
A pilot project is a useful path around that glitch, and if council agrees to it—and it gets through the ensuing maze of approvals from both Parks Canada and the municipality—it will mean a summer of sipping drinks on sunny sidewalks for tourists and locals alike.
Right now council is working on a bylaw to address the commercial use of public land, and according to Coun. Gilbert Wall the pilot projects will help it come up with one that is as solid as possible.
In the meantime, council has done a good job making things happen, but it’s not fair to ask groups like the Jasper Local Food Society to come back year after year for permission to hold their market.
The more quickly this new bylaw is passed, the more quickly the society, restaurant owners and other groups can start making long-term plans that aren’t contingent on council’s constant approval.
