Sunshine Village at odds with Parks Canada in search for parking solution

A ski resort in Banff National Park is at odds with Parks Canada about how to accommodate vehicles for its thousands of guests.

Sunshine Village says the federal regulator is pushing it to spend $32 million on a four- to five-storey parkade to increase parking spaces to more than 1,000 for the site.

"It would be like when you're pulling into the Calgary Airport," resort chief operating officer David Riley told the Calgary Eyeopener. "We don't think that's what people would expect to see in a national park ... a concrete block like that." 

But Parks Canada says that's not an accurate representation of what it's trying to do.

It's suggesting more parking above the existing lot, a parkade or mass transit — solutions it says would mean a similar footprint to what is currently there.

"We haven't specified the size of any parking structure and we haven't even specified that they have to do it. It's up to the operator when they do their long-range planing to decide how they want to approach it," said Sheila Luey, acting superintendent for the Banff field unit.

The goal, it says, is to help fix the years of parking backlog at the mountain resort, while ensuring the environmental protection of the surrounding undeveloped wilderness. Last month, Parks Canada launched online comments on its plans for Sunshine Village.

The debate about parking to get to the ski hill has been going on for years, with Parks Canada at one time banning parking along an access road and Sunshine in turn filing a judicial review and setting up a parking campaign website.

Sunshine wants to add a satellite parking lot off the access road.

Sunshine hired three consultants to assess parking options for the roughly 6,500 skiers it sees at peak times and the up to 8,500 skiers it hopes to accommodate. The reports, posted online, recommend the satellite lot that Sunshine would like to install. One said the lot could provide 750 spots, a 280-stall parkade, and be used in addition to the existing lot.

Sunshine is trying to avoid a large parkade, in part because the company believes it would have to build one so big, it would block animals from walking through the site.

"We expect it would be around $32 million to build this thing. It would only be necessary or it would only be used about 30 or 40 days out of the year, so it would sit empty the rest of the time," Riley said.

But the existing lot and the proposed one are in a wildlife corridor. Riley said the animals can walk through a parking lot but not through a building.

The parking options Sunshine has suggested are outside its leasehold boundary and many are on previously undeveloped land, Luey said. The regulator does limit a company's development to its current land, but Luey said it is considering those ideas, regardless.

"I think if Canadians weigh in here, we'll hit that spot where we can get it right, where we can find the right place to land that protects wildlife corridors, sensitive species and habitats and still provide a great experience for skiers," Luey said.

She said Sunshine Village has also suggested it would like to add a second lift to reach the top of Goat's Head Mountain for skiers, plus a restaurant and interpretive site.

Sunshine said this idea would result in fewer downed trees than the option for a second lift presented by Parks. However, Parks said its environmental impact considerations "go far beyond tree removal."

Members of the public can submit thoughts on the proposals until Aug. 19 at talkwithparks.ca/sunshine.

Sunshine Village has posted its proposals and thoughts on the draft guidelines at sunshinesiteguidelines.com.

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With files from Lisa Robinson and the Calgary Eyeopener.