Council is considering a busking trial for the summer of 2016, allowing street performers to set up in specific locations throughout the downtown core.
A similar trial took place during Culture Days, Sept. 26 and 27, but council determined two days wasn't enough to determine whether or not to move forward with a busking bylaw.
Instead, council directed administration to draft a plan for a pilot project that would allow for a greater opportunity to garner feedback and test busking on Jasper's public sidewalks.
The Culture Days busking trial had musicians out in two downtown locations, one on Connaught Drive and another on Patricia Street, between the hours of 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. Following the trial, the municipality collected feedback from the community, garnering 27 responses.
In response to the feedback, which was primarily positive, Mayor Richard Ireland suggested it wasn't enough to move ahead with writing a busking bylaw.
Council suggested beginning a summer-long trial next June and carrying it through until the end of September.
Currently, busking falls under commercial use of public land and, as such, is prohibited in Jasper, much like sidewalk seating and the farmer’s market, both of which are currently involved in their own pilot projects.
“I think that [a trial] should go for a summer or something like that before we outright allow it,” said Coun. Brian Nesbitt. “I'm thinking of the farmer's market, if we did the farmer's market where we tried it for one weekend and the neighbour happened to be away that weekend, we wouldn't have had a fair response.
“Now we know that we did it for an entire summer and that there are very little complaints, if any.”
According to the municipality's chief administrative officer, there are benefits to pilot projects.
“Pilot projects allow us to make changes midstream because we have the flexibility to change, whereas a bylaw once it's created it's less flexible,” explained Mark Fercho. “If we have a pilot project we can say this is what we think it should look like, try it and adjust as we go until we get it right.”
Although the majority of council was in favour of a lengthier pilot project, Coun. Gilbert Wall pushed to move full steam ahead and write a bylaw.
“I feel like we're making this extremely complicated—it's busking. We're not the first community to do busking, there's busking all over the planet, there's busking in resort communities, there's busking in non-resort communities, I think we just run with it.
“There's a reasonable expectation from our business community that they're not going to be impeded, that's granted, but this is not a huge event. I think just start running with it and deal with some of the fall out as it comes.
Another pilot project, to me, is not necessary.”
Despite Wall's comments, council directed administration to bring forward a plan for a pilot project for next summer.
Nicole Veerman
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