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Parking, Parking, Parking

City councillors back plan for less parking at future housing developments
As Edmonton’s inner city becomes denser, city officials are betting future residents won’t require two street-parking stalls in front of their homes.

Backed by some city councilors Wednesday, Edmonton proposed a plan at the urban planning committee that would reduce the number of street parking spots that developers must accommodate when building houses.

The changes — which need final approval when it goes to public hearing next month — would only require one street-parking stall when builders construct homes. Currently, developers are required to allow at least two stalls.

Staff said the reduction would lessen construction costs and allow for more diverse housing options.

http://www.metronews.ca/news/edmont...ors-back-edmonton-parking-reduction-plan.html
 
Who knew? The parking lot beside the Edmonton World Trade Centre has been operating without a permit all these years...

Reference ID: Job No 245142994-001
Description: To allow for the continue operation of an existing Non-accessory Parking lot, existing without permit (IMPARK)
Location: 9954 - JASPER AVENUE NW
Plan NE Lot 16
9936 - JASPER AVENUE NW
Plan NE Lots 14-15
9964 - JASPER AVENUE NW
Plan NE Lot 17
9968 - JASPER AVENUE NW
Plan NE Lots 17-18
Applicant: EDMONTON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, ANTHONY
Status: New
Create Date: 4/6/2017 10:58:47 AM
Neighbourhood: DOWNTOWN
 
How should the amount of parking for new homes and businesses be regulated?
February 11, 2019

The number of parking spaces provided with new homes and businesses can significantly impact a neighbourhood’s look, feel and mobility. There are often trade-offs between available parking, the cost of homes and businesses, and the ability to walk to destinations in your neighbourhood.

The City wants your thoughts on how to balance these trade-offs through different options for regulating how much on-site parking is provided with new homes and businesses. Feedback is encouraged through an online survey until February 24, 2019.

Input gathered will be considered in recommendations, presented in a report to Urban Planning Committee for feedback in spring 2019. Any changes to Edmonton’s parking rules must be approved by City Council at a Public Hearing before they can come into effect.

If new rules are approved, the changes to on-site parking for homes and businesses will happen gradually as new buildings are built and properties in the city are redeveloped.

For more information:
edmonton.ca/makingspace

Media contact:
Karen Burgess
Communications Advisor, Development Services
780-496-4908
 
Edmonton first major Canadian municipality to eliminate parking minimums
June 23, 2020

Edmonton City Council voted to remove minimum parking requirements from Edmonton’s Zoning Bylaw at today’s Public Hearing. Effective July 2, 2020, developers, homeowners and businesses will be able to decide how much on-site parking to provide on their properties based on their particular operations, activities or lifestyle.

“Parking is a powerful, but often hidden, force that shapes how our communities are designed and influences every aspect of how people live, work and move around,” said Kim Petrin, Development Services Branch Manager, City of Edmonton. “Eliminating parking minimums delivers significant long-term benefits for Edmonton. It removes economic barriers to new homes and businesses, and improves choice and flexibility in how businesses and homeowners meet their parking needs. It also supports more diverse transportation options and climate resilience, and moves us closer to achieving the vibrant, walkable and compact city we heard Edmontonians want through public engagement for ConnectEdmonton and the draft City Plan".

On-site parking is expensive, running anywhere from $7,000 to $60,000 per stall. This cost gets passed down in the rent or mortgage Edmontonians pay, goods bought and services used. Removing minimums is a practical, fiscally responsible move that creates the possibility for a less auto-centric future.

This high cost of on-site parking has also created significant economic barriers to affordable housing development and the ability for new businesses to open in Edmonton. Eliminating parking minimums paves the way for more diverse, affordable housing choices, and walkable main street shopping areas and local amenities, such as neighbourhood coffee shops, that Edmontonians have told the City they want.

Removing parking minimums allows for businesses and homeowners to determine their parking needs and ensure they are met, making this approach more likely to result in the “right amount” of parking.

While the change will be transformative, it will be gradual. The new rules will only come into effect as homes and businesses are slowly developed or redeveloped across the city in the decades ahead.

Edmonton has a long history of allocating a disproportionate amount of space to parking amenities. This has led to a greater than 50 per cent oversupply of on-site parking city-wide, which will not disappear overnight.

These new Zoning Bylaw rules also enable opportunities for businesses and homeowners to share parking or lease out space to nearby properties, allowing for more efficient use of Edmonton’s existing oversupply of on-site parking. Allowing developments to share parking can also help ease potential on-street parking pressure in situations where an area may be experiencing a high rate of redevelopment. The City will monitor the impacts of shared parking and report back to Council in early 2021.

Under the new rules, barrier-free (accessible) parking will continue to be provided at rates comparable to today and bicycle parking requirements have increased. Maximum parking requirements have been retained downtown, and expanded in Transit Oriented Development (TOD) and main street areas, and design requirements for both surface and underground parking facilities have also been enhanced.

For more information:
edmonton.ca/makingspace

(via email)
 
1/2-way there -- now if they could just devise a bylaw to make it very expensive to operate surface parking lots that are not affiliated by ownership with a particular development -- higher taxes -- and also require renewal permits in one-year increments (that are also expensive) to create a disincentive to tear up a site for parking only.
 
1/2-way there -- now if they could just devise a bylaw to make it very expensive to operate surface parking lots that are not affiliated by ownership with a particular development -- higher taxes -- and also require renewal permits in one-year increments (that are also expensive) to create a disincentive to tear up a site for parking only.
Now you're talking! Nothing would have a larger impact on development in this city IMO. It is simply too cheap and easy to hold onto land, and developers (or speculators) have every incentive in the world to just wait for the next boom to cash out (whether you believe another boom is coming or not is a whole other topic of discussion, mind you!)
 
I love this - not only because of the obvious benefits to business, the economy and development, but it also reminds me that Edmonton really is heading in the right direction and has a bright future 😊 Now it’s our job to ensure that it stays along that course!
 
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Honestly this is such great news. Hopefully the city does the smart thing though and starts to also invest more in our transit system to make up for any parking shortfall.
 
@Aaron_Lloyd Welp, it's great that the city is actually doing that! Besides the new LRT, I can't wait for the new bus network to come out next year! So exciting 😁
 
Having much better frequencies and reliability within the city is definitely a step in the right direction. I wonder if the whole "on-demand" thing was figured out for the 'burb neighborhoods which lost their bus routes, though.
 
Oh I'm glad there's a thread for this as I'm not sure if it exists in Edmonton. Seeing the proposed towers around Strathearn and Mill Woods as well as the redevelopment of the vacant land north of Clareview Station has got me thinking that reducing minimum parking requirements in developments around LRT could. 1. Encourage transit use, or on the flip side discourage non transit users from renting there, 2. Make the development more profitable for builders as parking stalls, even surface ones, cost a heck of a lot of money to build, 3. Encourage designs that are more pedestrian friendly and interact with the streetscape a lot better.

Required tradeoffs I'm familiar with from my time in Vancouver include 1. partnering with car shares (right now there's just Communauto) to say provide 1 car for every 80-100 units, 2. providing more secure bicycle parking per unit, 3. making say 10% of stalls EV ready (pre wired 240V 40A and submetered), 4. Distance to fixed or bus rapid transit, or location. Each item can reduce the stall per unit requirement to some degree.

The parking lots at apartment/condo complexes within 800m of LRT stations are underutilized to some degree.
 
Oh I'm glad there's a thread for this. Seeing the proposed towers around Strathearn and Mill Woods as well as the redevelopment of the vacant land north of Clareview Station has got me thinking that reducing minimum parking requirements in developments around LRT could. 1. Encourage transit use, or on the flip side discourage non transit users from renting there, 2. Make the development more profitable for builders as parking stalls, even surface ones, cost a heck of a lot of money to build, 3. Encourage designs that are more pedestrian friendly and interact with the streetscape a lot better.

Required tradeoffs I'm familiar with from my time in Vancouver include 1. partnering with car shares (right now there's just Communauto) to say provide 1 car for every 80-100 units, 2. providing more secure bicycle parking per unit, 3. making say 10% of stalls EV ready (pre wired 240V 40A and submetered), 4. Distance to fixed or bus rapid transit, or location.

The parking lots at apartment/condo complexes within 800m of LRT stations are underutilized to some degree.
Edmonton did away with parking minimums ~2 years ago now. I'm guessing Strathearn heights was approved before that change though, so they are still meeting the old parking requirements. There are also already bike parking rules for residential but don't know them off the top of my head.
 

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