City Council has begun the process of decreasing the parking space requirements for theatre and retail businesses.
At the regular Council Meeting March 13, Michael Eger, director of Planning, Building and Development, presented a proposed amendment to the Zoning Bylaw.
Under the new regulations, retailers and similar businesses in the commercial zones of the city will only have to provide 3.3 parking spaces per 1,000 square feet of floor space compared to the current 4.6 spaces.
Entertainment facilities would only be required to provide 2.6 spaces.
Council had previously directed administrators to study the issue at the February 21 regular meeting.
“There is a trend in Canadian municipalities to reduce parking rate requirements to achieve more compact growth,” Eger wrote.
He outlined three factors as rationale: that land and servicing costs have risen sharply relative to development costs; that sprawling growth requires more infrastructure, which is already in deficit; and that existing retail and similar uses have an overabundance of spaces with customers only using 70 to 75 per cent of available spaces even during peak hours.
Eger noted that the City Centre commercial zone already has a reduced parking requirement, which includes an exemption on the first 3,000 square feet and 2.3 spaces per 1,000 thereafter. No further reduction was recommended for downtown.
Council unanimously passed the first reading of the proposed bylaw requiring public notice for two weeks.
The proposal is now open to written submissions from the public and a public hearing will be held Monday April 3 at 5 p.m. at City Hall.
