Vancouver parking recommendations go to council next week

Developers building in parts of Vancouver could soon get a break from city hall when it comes to setting aside enough parking spaces for residents, but that could create challenges for those visiting and living in the West End or a large section of Broadway.

City staff are asking city council to get rid of the minimum parking requirements developers need to build into their projects.

“The elimination of minimum parking requirements recommended in this report is limited to general-purpose vehicle parking only. This report does not recommend any changes to the number of required accessible parking, visitor parking, or bicycle parking spaces,” the report reads.

Historically, staff say, minimum off-street parking requirements were designed to ensure all vehicles associated with a building can park on the property without having to rely on street parking. The requirements were lifted in the downtown area in 2019, however, staff note “there are 28 residential and 35 non-residential minimum parking rates remaining in the by-law.”

“While the most commonly used rates reflect vehicle ownership levels fairly well, others have not been reviewed in decades,” staff explain.

However, Vancouver City Councillor Pete Fry says there are more parking stalls in the West End than there are registered vehicles – and the cost makes housing development more expensive.

“Developers are saying, ‘look, you’ve imposed this cost, this burden of additional parking spaces that nobody wants,’ and it’s stuff we have to pass onto the consumers,” he said.

“When we talk about the cost of a parking stall being anywhere from $60,000 to $120,000 in a new construction, that does actually affect the bottom line, the viability of that construction, of what it costs.”

The report, set to go before councillors on Wednesday, Nov. 15, says “there are likely to be positive impacts of the regulation change,” based on an evaluation of data since the elimination of parking minimums downtown since 2019.

Some of those benefits, the report explains, include increasing the number of “financially attractive” projects, which in turn would increase housing supply, as well as supporting the reduction of construction costs, “potentially enabling increased affordability at non-market rental projects.”

The report also points to other North American cities which have removed minimum parking requirements, such as Edmonton and Toronto, in 2020 and 2021 respectively.

An “oversupply of off-street parking,” walkability, and the current regulation of on-street parking are some of the factors the report says make the West End, Robson North and Broadway Plan Area “well-positioned” to see the parking requirements eliminated.

However, critics aren’t so sure about the plan, suggesting this move is just another volley in the city’s battle against cars and that there is a need for more on-property parking options.

Others are questioning whether the city would plan to increase transit options to these areas if minimum parking requirements were to be dropped.

With files from Kier Junos