{"id":63139,"date":"2021-01-25T08:00:52","date_gmt":"2021-01-25T13:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?p=63139"},"modified":"2021-01-25T08:57:05","modified_gmt":"2021-01-25T13:57:05","slug":"when-it-comes-to-parking-minimums-less-is-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2021\/01\/25\/when-it-comes-to-parking-minimums-less-is-more\/","title":{"rendered":"When it comes to parking minimums, less is more"},"content":{"rendered":"

Is parking policy in Toronto finally going to be meaningfully reformed? On January 5th, the City of Toronto released a \u201cReport for Action<\/a>\u201d signalling it will review its parking policies. This is an opportunity for Torontonians to reflect on the future of automobile infrastructure in urban spaces and to recognize the far-reaching implications that parking provisions have on the built environment.<\/p>\n

During warmer months last year, we glimpsed a possible future with parking and other car-centric road infrastructure converted to more productive, vibrant uses. City residents experienced a public realm designed \u2014 albeit temporarily \u2014 for people, not cars.<\/p>\n

Given this experience, it is not surprising that the current plan to re-design Yonge Street<\/a> as a people-centred main street may finally have the momentum needed to push it over the finish line. Post-pandemic, this large-scale street-redesign project will be important for community- and economy-building in the downtown area — a shot in the arm, so to speak.<\/p>\n

Lower-profile city-wide reforms of parking policies are also a key ingredient in reducing car trips in general. Cars provide anywhere-to-anywhere mobility \u00adas long as parking exists at origins and destinations. (Removal of parking does not inhibit ride hailing services and autonomous vehicles; however, increases in their use still contribute to road congestion and localized particulate matter pollution.) Limiting the availability of parking through changes in parking policy can help move us towards a car-lite post-pandemic urban future, but there are important additional benefits associated with limiting parking provision in urban spaces.<\/p>\n

Supplying space for car storage is not just about providing drivers with anywhere-to-anywhere mobility. It is also about what we give up in exchange for this luxury. Surface parking requires vast swaths of land that could otherwise be used for more productive purposes, like housing, places of employment, or alternative high-capacity transportation networks.<\/p>\n

Parking is also expensive to provide. In a 2019 report<\/a> by the City of Edmonton, off-street parking was estimated to be oversupplied by 50%, which, according to Edmonton urbanist Ashley Salvador, is about \u201c$200 million in pavement that, at any given time, nobody\u2019s using.\u201d<\/p>\n

In denser urban settings with higher real estate costs, land used for parking is minimized via underground or structure parking. However, the associated capital costs are prohibitively expensive with general cost estimates of $34,000 USD and $24,000 USD for one underground or structure parking space respectively, as parking critic Donald Shoup noted in a 2014 essay, \u201cThe High Cost of Minimum Parking Requirements.\u201d<\/p>\n

When cities require minimum amounts of off-street parking for residential and commercial developments, developers working in urban areas tend to provide exactly the minimum. These binding minimums imply that, if given the opportunity, developers would provide less<\/em> parking than required.<\/p>\n

What do we lose when developers are forced to ignore the market for parking?<\/p>\n

Parking has immediate implications on built form and housing affordability: inefficient levels of parking contribute to inefficient levels of rent and housing supply. In general, the cost of parking gets passed through to consumers. Numerous studies<\/a> have demonstrated that apartment rents and condo prices for residential units with bundled parking are greater than units without and the additional costs of more expensive underground and structure parking are passed through to renters.<\/p>\n

Other recent research has shown that minimum parking requirements also discourage the development of smaller residential units. A recent report out of Portland, Oregon<\/a> shows that a fairly typical residential parking requirement leads to one third of the supply of new housing units at triple the unit price as compared to a scenario where no parking is required.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

From a developer\u2019s perspective as well as a municipality\u2019s, it may be unrealistic to provide no parking in a residential development in locations without ample density and alternative transportation. However, with Toronto\u2019s impending review of existing parking bylaws, the City has an opportunity to implement progressive parking policy that takes into account the well documented ills associated with minimum parking requirements. Thus, one potential policy change could be the removal of minimum parking requirements for off-street parking altogether \u2013 something the City of Edmonton did just last year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So what happens after minimums are removed? Seattle and London provide some clues.<\/p>\n

Seattle’s gradual reduction and elimination of parking minimums in central neighborhoods resulted in developers providing 40% less parking than under previous parking requirements \u2013 18,000 fewer spaces with an estimated savings of $537 million, according to new research by C.J. Gabbe, a University of Santa Clara urban planning scholar.<\/a><\/p>\n

In 2004, London changed its minimum<\/em> parking requirements to maximum<\/em> requirements: 1.5 spaces per unit for new residential developments. Within this set maximum, local boroughs were free to create their own requirements as long as the maximum was not exceeded. Pre-reform, the average amount of parking supplied was 1.12 spaces per residential unit; post-reform, it dropped to 0.63, according to research published in Urban Studies<\/em><\/a> Journal<\/em>. Declines were greatest in dense, central urban areas with some developers choosing to provide no parking.<\/p>\n

We might expect something similar to play out in Toronto if minimums are removed. And in fact, we can already observe how developers might react to their removal. Based on 198 multi-family residential development applications in Q2 of 2019, 78% of developments requested levels of parking lower than the existing minimums set by the city. (Data provided by Map Your Property and the City of Toronto Application Information Centre website.)<\/p>\n

Proposed developments closer to the core \u2013 located in denser neighbourhoods closer to jobs and multiple alternative forms of transportation \u2013 unsurprisingly tended to request much lower levels of parking than the existing minimum. Further into suburban areas, requests tended to approach the minimum \u2013 precisely what we might expect the market for parking to look like in absence of a parking minimum.<\/p>\n

According to Ralph Bond, a Toronto area transportation and land development consultant with BA Consulting Group, roughly 95% of the residential and mixed-use development applications they consult on that request lower than the minimum required amount of parking are successful. Where 85% of the applications receive approval on the initial requested amount, the other 10% require upwards adjustments. The remaining 5% are unsuccessful.<\/p>\n

How developers might react to the removal of minimums in Toronto is therefore already playing out, but in an incredibly inefficient manner that requires potentially multiple variance and rezoning applications. The processes involved delay development and represent pre-development costs developers likely pass through to consumers.<\/p>\n

For some Toronto residents, removal of minimums represents the tip of the iceberg in terms of parking reform possibilities. More extreme measures could include the removal of on-street parking and even the removal of cars from some areas altogether.<\/p>\n

Such reforms are currently happening in a number of European cities. Paris recently announced<\/a> that it will be eliminating 140,000 on-street parking spaces. In 2019, Amsterdam began its plan<\/a> to remove 1,500 spaces per year within its core. And Madrid will keep its city-centre car ban<\/a> after public backlash to its proposed cancellation from the new government. Old, dense European cities with built environments created when walking was the main mode of transportation are not necessarily proper comparators for the vast majority of North American cities. But I would argue they should serve as inspiration for central urban neighbourhoods \u2013 like Yonge Street.<\/p>\n

Outside of targeted areas for more extreme reforms, the general removal of parking minimums represents a meaningful first step for Toronto to rebalance the primacy of cars and their associated infrastructure within the transportation network. Removing minimums is a marginal process, somewhat similar to banning strict single-family zoning (in the U.S.) or detached residential (in Toronto). Since buildings are durable goods, large shifts in land devoted to parking are not possible without substantial amounts of redevelopment, which takes time.<\/p>\n

This is the same longer-term process that will take place in neighborhoods that remove detached residential zoning. Marginally denser structures will eventually get built, just like there will be marginally less parking with the removal of parking minimums. This timeline implies that cities must plan now for the land use of the future. The status quo of parking minimums \u2014 rules enacted years ago \u2014 no longer serve our built environments, our demographics, our transportation preferences, or our environmental concerns. The elimination of parking minimums is low hanging fruit and something Toronto council should act on immediately.<\/p>\n

top photo by Vincent WR (cc)<\/em><\/a> ; middle photo by Ryan (cc)<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Lyndsey Rolheiser <\/i><\/a>is an Assistant Professor of Urban Economics at<\/i> Ryerson University\u2019s School of Urban and Regional Planning, and a research associate at the Centre for Urban Research and Land Development. Follow her on twitter at @theHeize<\/a><\/i>r.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is parking policy in Toronto finally going to be meaningfully reformed? On January 5th, the City of Toronto released a \u201cReport for Action\u201d signalling it will review its parking policies. This is an opportunity for Torontonians to reflect on the future of automobile infrastructure in urban spaces and to recognize the far-reaching implications that parkingContinue reading “When it comes to parking minimums, less is more”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8469,"featured_media":63152,"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":[22,32,9,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-architecture","category-streetscape","category-traffic","category-urban-design"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhen it comes to parking minimums, less is more - 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\/2021\/01\/25\/when-it-comes-to-parking-minimums-less-is-more\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"When it comes to parking minimums, less is more - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Is parking policy in Toronto finally going to be meaningfully reformed? On January 5th, the City of Toronto released a \u201cReport for Action\u201d signalling it will review its parking policies. This is an opportunity for Torontonians to reflect on the future of automobile infrastructure in urban spaces and to recognize the far-reaching implications that parkingContinue reading "When it comes to parking minimums, less is more"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2021\/01\/25\/when-it-comes-to-parking-minimums-less-is-more\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-01-25T13:00:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-01-25T13:57:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/01\/45589381995_f53371d942_k.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2048\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1152\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lyndsey Rolheiser\" \/>\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=\"Lyndsey Rolheiser\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2021\/01\/25\/when-it-comes-to-parking-minimums-less-is-more\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2021\/01\/25\/when-it-comes-to-parking-minimums-less-is-more\/\",\"name\":\"When it comes to parking minimums, less is more - Spacing Toronto\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2021\/01\/25\/when-it-comes-to-parking-minimums-less-is-more\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2021\/01\/25\/when-it-comes-to-parking-minimums-less-is-more\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/01\/45589381995_f53371d942_k.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-01-25T13:00:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-01-25T13:57:05+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/51f1ba3a3c44dd041421560129b98900\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2021\/01\/25\/when-it-comes-to-parking-minimums-less-is-more\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2021\/01\/25\/when-it-comes-to-parking-minimums-less-is-more\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2021\/01\/25\/when-it-comes-to-parking-minimums-less-is-more\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/01\/45589381995_f53371d942_k.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/01\/45589381995_f53371d942_k.jpg\",\"width\":2048,\"height\":1152},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2021\/01\/25\/when-it-comes-to-parking-minimums-less-is-more\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"When it comes to parking minimums, less is more\"}]},{\"@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\/51f1ba3a3c44dd041421560129b98900\",\"name\":\"Lyndsey Rolheiser\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f468846f69adda31ab902b765c9fcd38?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f468846f69adda31ab902b765c9fcd38?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Lyndsey Rolheiser\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/author\/lyndseyrolheiser\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"When it comes to parking minimums, less is more - Spacing Toronto","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2021\/01\/25\/when-it-comes-to-parking-minimums-less-is-more\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"When it comes to parking minimums, less is more - Spacing Toronto","og_description":"Is parking policy in Toronto finally going to be meaningfully reformed? On January 5th, the City of Toronto released a \u201cReport for Action\u201d signalling it will review its parking policies. This is an opportunity for Torontonians to reflect on the future of automobile infrastructure in urban spaces and to recognize the far-reaching implications that parkingContinue reading \"When it comes to parking minimums, less is more\"","og_url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2021\/01\/25\/when-it-comes-to-parking-minimums-less-is-more\/","og_site_name":"Spacing Toronto","article_published_time":"2021-01-25T13:00:52+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-01-25T13:57:05+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2048,"height":1152,"url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/01\/45589381995_f53371d942_k.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Lyndsey Rolheiser","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Spacing","twitter_site":"@Spacing","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Lyndsey Rolheiser","Est. reading time":"7 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2021\/01\/25\/when-it-comes-to-parking-minimums-less-is-more\/","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2021\/01\/25\/when-it-comes-to-parking-minimums-less-is-more\/","name":"When it comes to parking minimums, less is more - Spacing Toronto","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2021\/01\/25\/when-it-comes-to-parking-minimums-less-is-more\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2021\/01\/25\/when-it-comes-to-parking-minimums-less-is-more\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/01\/45589381995_f53371d942_k.jpg","datePublished":"2021-01-25T13:00:52+00:00","dateModified":"2021-01-25T13:57:05+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/51f1ba3a3c44dd041421560129b98900"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2021\/01\/25\/when-it-comes-to-parking-minimums-less-is-more\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2021\/01\/25\/when-it-comes-to-parking-minimums-less-is-more\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2021\/01\/25\/when-it-comes-to-parking-minimums-less-is-more\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/01\/45589381995_f53371d942_k.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/01\/45589381995_f53371d942_k.jpg","width":2048,"height":1152},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2021\/01\/25\/when-it-comes-to-parking-minimums-less-is-more\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"When it comes to parking minimums, less is more"}]},{"@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\/51f1ba3a3c44dd041421560129b98900","name":"Lyndsey Rolheiser","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f468846f69adda31ab902b765c9fcd38?s=96&d=blank&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f468846f69adda31ab902b765c9fcd38?s=96&d=blank&r=g","caption":"Lyndsey Rolheiser"},"url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/author\/lyndseyrolheiser\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8469"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63139"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63156,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63139\/revisions\/63156"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}