WCEL > Issues > Urban Growth and Development > Smart Bylaws Guide > Part 4 > Scale Parking to Neighbourhood Needs

Smart Bylaws Guide – Scale Parking to Neighbourhood Needs

Smart growth neighbourhoods present a streetscape dominated by attractive buildings, boulevards with trees, and pedestrian walkways.  This image is contrary to many residential and non-residential neighbourhoods where parking lots line the street and garage facades are buffered by parked cars in wide driveways.  Parking standards are usually applied through zoning regulations without consideration for specific neighbourhood needs and uses.  The parking requirements in most zoning bylaws are intended to meet peak parking demand for non-residential developments, but are underused for most of the year.  Likewise, residential requirements do not take into account proximity to transit and commercial areas by foot, and the availability of on-street parking. 

Lowering parking requirements goes hand in hand with increasing density and creating a pedestrian-friendly environment where people feel comfortable walking down the street to get a cup of coffee, sitting on their front porch to talk to passing neighbors, and parking on the street in the town center for some quick shopping.  In mixed-use neighbourhoods with greater than 30 dwelling units per hectare (12 per acre), commercial uses become viable and people use non-automobile means to reach shops and services.

Parking strategies include:

• sharing parking between different uses, for example an office and a restaurant, that require parking at different times of the day;
• using minimum and maximum parking standards to ensure that adequate parking is provided but not overbuilt;
• encouraging on-street parking to increase safety by buffering pedestrians from moving traffic and slowing traffic;
• allowing businesses to count nearby on-street parking as part of their parking requirements;
• locating parking lots behind buildings to minimize the impact of parking on neighbourhoods; and
• setting back garages from the front façade of the house to ensure that building entrances are most accessible and provide eyes on the street. 

Examples of Scaling Parking to Neighbourhood Needs

Burnaby – Tailoring Parking in Transit-Oriented Developments

The compact transit-oriented P11-E District in Burnaby has very low parking requirements [1 per unit with a 0.2 increase for every bedroom above the baseline, and 0.2 per unit for visitors – see Schedule VIII of the Burnaby Zoning Bylaw, Section 800.4(d)]. 

Oliver – Lower Parking Standards where Auto Use Less and Pay-in-Lieu

In section 6.4.1 of its Zoning Bylaw, the Town of Oliver allows council to reduce the number of parking stalls for residential developments restricted by a housing agreement to a class of persons whose automobile ownership is below normal rates.  Under section 6.8, council may allow a partial or total relaxation of on-site parking requirements where the property is located within 200 metres of a public parking area owned and operated by the Town, and where the developer pays $4500 per stall to the Town’s collective parking fund. 

Victoria – Parking Variances for Redevelopment in the Downtown

The Victoria City Council rezoned the Mosaic building, just west of downtown, from the downtown CA-3 district (requiring 0.7 parking spaces per unit) to the R-48 Harris Green District that does not require parking to facilitate the redevelopment of an office building to residential uses.  The redevelopment created 85 strata title units, and the developers provided 29 parking stalls spaces on another lot.  The downtown CA-3 zone does not require any off-street parking for office uses, but does requires off-street parking for transient tourist accommodation and residential accommodation.

Vancouver  – Payment-in-Lieu and Lower Parking for Transit-Supportive Uses

Both Vancouver and Toronto have parking programs where developers can contribute towards off-site facilities (average cost is $15,000 per stall) or to a general fund aimed at reducing the need for parking spaces (see Vancouver Parking Bylaw No. 6059 (updated to April 20, 2004), Section 4 – Off-Street Parking Regulations, section 14.12 Waiver of Parking Requirements for Payment-in lieu Relief).  See Schedule A of the Parking Bylaw for a list of Payment-In-Lieu Bylaws and the amounts paid.

Vancouver also reduces parking standards for transit-supportive developments.  For example, in the Collingwood area near the Joyce skytrain station, a post-development study titled the Collingwood Village Parking Study found that residents of multi-unit developments within 300 metres of skytrain stations own, on average, 0.96 vehicles per unit while residents of multi-unit developments at least 1000 metres from skytrain stations own 1.05 vehicles per unit.  Twenty four percent of households near skytrain stations did not own a vehicle.  This level of car ownership was significantly lower than anticipated in the original CD-1 zoning around Collingwood Village, and because of these findings the City reduced the parking standard for the Village by 20-25% (CD-1 By-laws No. 7204 (1993) and No. 7639 (1996) 3418 and 3550 Vanness Avenue).  The new standard required that multiple dwelling uses shall provide a minimum of 1 space for each 250 (previously 200) square metres of gross residential floor area plus .75 (previously 1) space for each dwelling unit, except that no more than 1.1 spaces per dwelling unit need be provided for each dwelling unit less than 50 square metres of gross floor area; and for 3418 Vanness Avenue a minimum of .75 (previously 1) off-street parking space for every dwelling unit plus one space for each 250 (previously 200) square metres of gross residential floor area.

See also the City of Port Coquitlam's Sustainability Initiative Cash in Lieu of Parking Variance

Portland, Oregon

Portland’s urban core is renowned for combining high densities with excellent transit and amenities to make a very livable city.  In several zones in the core no minimum parking standards exist while parking maximums are low (see Table 266-2 beginning on page 266-6, in Chapter 33-266 Parking and Loading of the Zoning Code).  The zoning code also offers car sharing, car-pooling and other provisions for reducing parking, and details long- and short-term bicycle parking requirements (see Bicycle Parking standards, beginning on page 266-24, in Chapter 33-266 Parking and Loading of the Zoning Code).  Portland also requires that garages be set back from the front façade of single family houses (Table 110-3 on page 110-6 and discussion of Setbacks beginning on 110-12, in Chapter 33-110 Single Dwelling Zones).

For More Information

• Density
• Mixed-use
• Compact Complete Communities
• Parking Alternatives: Making Way for Urban Infill and Brownfield Development (Urban and Economic Development Division, US Environmental Protection Agency, 1999)
• Parking Management Best Practices (Victoria Transport Policy Institute 2004):
• Introduction, Optimal Parking Supply
• Parking Management Strategies 
• Developing An Integrated Parking Management Plan, Examples 
• Parking Management Made Easy: A Guide to Taming the Downtown Parking Beast (Oregon Department of Transportation, 2001)
• Assessing and Communicating the Costs of Parking (Ryan Russo, 2001)