Staff Report: Parking Regulations Update

DIRECTOR OF PROTECTIVE SERVICES’ COMMENTS

I concur with the recommendation.

DIRECTOR OF ENGINEERING’S COMMENTS

I concur with the recommendation.

PURPOSE OF REPORT

This report will review the Town’s parking payment-in-lieu scheme and the Town’s current and anticipated issues regarding the provision of parking for land uses. It will then make recommendations for an approach to revising the parking regulations in Town bylaws.

BACKGROUND

The Town drafted revised parking regulations for the Zoning Bylaw when it was adopted in 2014. These regulations are based on requiring parking spaces for specific uses within zones (such as café, detached residential, large daycare, etc) and typically described by dwelling unit for residential, or unit of floor area (such as 1 per 20m² for a retail store) for commercial uses. The provision for payment-in-lieu was originally adopted in 2013 within Land Use Bylaw 1990 No. 35, and then revised in the Zoning Bylaw in 2014 as it stands now, where up to 15% of spaces in the applicable areas can be provided in cash at $12,000 each:

5.9. PAYMENT IN LIEU OF PARKING

5.9.1. In all areas requiring a Commercial, Intensive Mixed Use, Neighbourhood Mixed-Use or Mixed Residential Form and Character Development Permit under the Town of View Royal Official Community Plan, the owner or occupier of the land, building or other structure may, in lieu of providing the required parking spaces as required by Town regulations for a given use, pay to the Town the amount of $12,000 per parking space for up to 15% of the parking spaces required in Town regulations for that use.

5.9.2. If payment in lieu of parking is provided, the owner or occupier of the land, building or structure must also pay an additional $10,000 per reduced parking space if the Town owns and operates an off-street parking facility within 250 metres of the land, building or structure for which the parking spaces are required.

To date the payment-in-lieu scheme has not been taken advantage of, despite having been in place for nearly 6 years.

ISSUES AND ANALYSIS

Parking Payment-in-Lieu

The Parking Payment-In-Lieu scheme was initiated through a provision in the Provincial Local Government Act which permits a municipality to accept cash in lieu of parking provision, provided that the funds in question:

• establish a reserve fund for the purpose of providing new and existing off street parking spaces; or
• transportation infrastructure that supports walking, bicycling, public transit or other alternative forms of transportation

The original report to Council describes the rationale behind the implementation (attached to this report):

The amount to charge is to be considered in terms of what the Town’s goals are for acquiring the money. As most of the funds will likely go towards alternative transportation improvements and considering that the variance must be granted before the money can be taken, the cash-in-lieu payment does not necessarily need to cover 100% of the parking space it replaces. This is also why one base fee is suitable for the entire municipality; the fee is applicable to improvements across the entirety of the municipality and does not apply directly to the site for which the variance is granted.

One can think of the scheme as a tool to meet the Town’s policy goals. If the goal is to raise money in exchange for parking that’s not actually needed on the site (ie there is a difference between what the Land Use Bylaw requires and what is actually required on the site) it makes good sense to charge a bit less for the variance to incentivise the process; especially where the Town’s Official Community Plan calls for reduced parking:

• Policy LU4.2 Support Walking, Cycling and Transit Encourage higher density and mixed-use development at neighbourhood centres and along major transit corridors to promote walkability, cycling and transit use. Support higher residential density, commercial intensity and reduced parking requirements in areas well served by transit.
• Policy LU4.7 Public Gathering Places and Outdoor Markets Encourage the development of public gathering places such parks, plazas and landscaped seating areas near activity-generating uses and mixed-use centres. Support public and outdoor markets in the Eastern Gateway Community Corridor, the Northern Gateway Community Corridor and the future Town Centre site through streamlined permitting and relaxed parking requirements.

When the regulation was first adopted, the approximation for the cost of providing parking was given as follows:

• Surface Parking: $5,000.00
• Above-ground parking facility: $15,000.00
• Underground parking facility: $40,000.00

There could be many reasons why the cash-in-lieu program has not been used since its inception:

• The costs of providing cash might be too high
• Developers may see a significant financial incentive in providing parking spaces for their development
• Developers tend to be risk-averse and slow to adopt new practises

It is important to note that this can only be implemented if it is an as-of-right provision for the applicant. Council cannot tie the provision of cash for parking to variances, as per legal opinion obtained by the Town.

Staff believes the process should be reviewed and revised to better meet the needs of all stakeholders – the Town, residents and applicants alike.

General Parking Regulations

In addition to reviewing the cash-in-lieu regulations, Staff is also recommending a comprehensive parking regulations review.

Parking is a notoriously difficult land use to effectively regulate, and different built environments necessitate different approaches to regulating parking. The City of Vancouver, for instance, is no longer requiring any parking provision for residential development. This may work in an environment where it is possible to walk, cycle or take transit a short distance from a downtown apartment to a downtown office. In a suburban municipality like View Royal, however, this is not practical or realistic. The great majority of residents are still reliant on motor vehicles.

Parking regulations within the Zoning Bylaw are based on provision of spaces for land uses, rather than per zone. For example, ‘detached residential’ requires 2 parking spaces per dwelling unit. This is the same whether the detached residential dwelling unit is on Stewart Avenue in a large lot zone, or Stoneridge Place in a small-lot subdivision. It is a one-size-fits all regulation which can be varied by Council (and provided in cash for certain uses, as above).

A one-size-fits-all solution is never going to be perfect, but then any parking provision is never going to be perfect in all cases. That said, there are certain instances where parking provision is clearly out-of-step with the ultimate demand:

• Rexall parking lot (too much parking provided)
• The Nest Café on Watkiss (too little parking provided)
• Nursery Hill Drive (too little parking provided)

Staff believes a refinement in the parking regulations may be able to improve the ultimate provision of parking.

These issues are complicated by the fact that our contemporary society is currently experiencing rapid and significant change in transportation modes. The following infrastructure and technologies are emerging very quickly, and will have significant impacts on day-to-day transportation:

• Electric cars
• Self-driving cars
• Electric-assist bicycles
• Sophisticated cycling infrastructure

These rapid changes will necessitate frequent review of parking regulations in the Town to ensure that the regulations are meeting needs into the future.

NEXT STEPS

Staff recommends a comprehensive review of parking regulations (both cash-in-lieu provisions and general parking) with the intention of better meeting the Town’s parking needs now and into the future.

RECOMMENDATION

THAT Committee receive the report entitled “Parking Regulations Update” from the Community Planner and dated June 6, 2019.

SUBMITTED BY: J. Davison MCIP RPP, Acting Director of Development Services

ATTACHMENTS

1. Parking Reduction Variance Charges COW Reports – May 14 and October 8, 2013