{"id":2457,"date":"2007-11-06T11:38:04","date_gmt":"2007-11-06T15:38:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=2457"},"modified":"2013-01-21T14:54:52","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T19:54:52","slug":"greening-parking-lots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/11\/06\/greening-parking-lots\/","title":{"rendered":"Greening parking lots"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm1.static.flickr.com\/41\/122846546_a42485474d.jpg\" height=\"337\" width=\"500\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Surface parking lots are possibly the most problematic use of space in a city &#8212; their vast impervious surfaces create runoffs of polluted water;  they absorb heat; although you have to walk out of them, they make no allowances for pedestrians, creating a sense of danger and unease; their vast surfaces are often left unused for big chunks of time; and they are just plain ugly, leaving dull gaping holes in the city&#8217;s fabric, deadening the urban spaces they inhabit.<\/p>\n<p>So it&#8217;s great news that the City of Toronto is piloting new <a href=\"http:\/\/www.toronto.ca\/planning\/urbdesign\/greening_parking_lots.htm\">design guidelines for &#8220;greening&#8221; surface parking lots<\/a>. The proposals include measures to address many of the major environmental problems, and in the process, they address some of the aesthetic problems as well. Ideas include landscaping with trees and grasses, using permeable surfaces such as bricks, and creating separated pedestrian walkways. (See also the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thestar.com\/News\/article\/272869\"><em>Toronto Star<\/em> article<\/a> on the issue.)<\/p>\n<p>At the moment, they are just a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.toronto.ca\/legdocs\/mmis\/2007\/pg\/bgrd\/backgroundfile-7554.pdf\">pilot project<\/a> (PDF), so they may be modified before a final version is put in place. The guidelines would only apply to new developments or re-developments, not retroactively, so unfortunately they won&#8217;t make a big difference to the many surface lots that are already established. A solution might be to impose a City fee on parking spots (the idea was briefly considered by the City earlier this year) and then allow that fee to be greatly reduced if the guidelines are followed, creating an incentive for parking lot owners to make changes that would really improve the city.<\/p>\n<p>The only drawback with the project is that it&#8217;s not really clear how strongly the new guidelines will be enforced. They will be taken into consideration during the development proposal process, but since most developers seem to ignore voluntary City guidelines,  I&#8217;m not really sure how much impact these good ideas will have in practical terms.<\/p>\n<p><em>photo by <a href=\"http:\/\/topleftpixel.com\">Sam Javanrouh<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Surface parking lots are possibly the most problematic use of space in a city &#8212; their vast impervious surfaces create runoffs of polluted water; they absorb heat; although you have to walk out of them, they make no allowances for pedestrians, creating a sense of danger and unease; their vast surfaces are often left unused<a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/11\/06\/greening-parking-lots\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"sr-only\">&#8220;Greening parking lots&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4006,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21759,13,32,20],"tags":[23,12,10,663,339,19,341],"class_list":["post-2457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","category-green-space","category-streetscape","category-urban-design","tag-environment","tag-planning","tag-public-enemy","tag-sam-javanrouh","tag-the-toronto-star","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-star"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Greening parking lots - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/11\/06\/greening-parking-lots\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Greening parking lots - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Surface parking lots are possibly the most problematic use of space in a city &#8212; their vast impervious surfaces create runoffs of polluted water; they absorb heat; although you have to walk out of them, they make no allowances for pedestrians, creating a sense of danger and unease; their vast surfaces are often left unusedContinue reading &quot;Greening parking lots&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/11\/06\/greening-parking-lots\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-11-06T15:38:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-01-21T19:54:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/farm1.static.flickr.com\/41\/122846546_a42485474d.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dylan Reid\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dylan Reid\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/11\/06\/greening-parking-lots\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/11\/06\/greening-parking-lots\/\",\"name\":\"Greening parking lots - Spacing Toronto\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/11\/06\/greening-parking-lots\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/11\/06\/greening-parking-lots\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/farm1.static.flickr.com\/41\/122846546_a42485474d.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2007-11-06T15:38:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-01-21T19:54:52+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/5db677dc17e5329d01b88dfb319d259b\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/11\/06\/greening-parking-lots\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/11\/06\/greening-parking-lots\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/11\/06\/greening-parking-lots\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/farm1.static.flickr.com\/41\/122846546_a42485474d.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/farm1.static.flickr.com\/41\/122846546_a42485474d.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/11\/06\/greening-parking-lots\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Greening parking lots\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/\",\"name\":\"Spacing Toronto\",\"description\":\"Canadian Urbanism Uncovered  |  Toronto Architecture, Urban Design, Public Transit, City Hall, Parks, Walking, Bikes, Streetscape, History, Waterfront, Maps, Public Spaces\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/5db677dc17e5329d01b88dfb319d259b\",\"name\":\"Dylan Reid\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/196165a3da8aa047d1d3816d24de1d3a?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/196165a3da8aa047d1d3816d24de1d3a?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Dylan Reid\"},\"description\":\"Dylan Reid is a senior editor at Spacing Magazine. He has also written articles for NOW magazine and the uTOpia books. He was co-chair of the Toronto Pedestrian Committee 2007-2010, was one of the founders of the Toronto Coalition (now Centre) for Active Transportation, and is a co-founder of Walk Toronto. 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