I used to live on 53rd Avenue between 204th Street and 206th Street. 53rd Avenue used to be four lanes with no parking. It existed in this configuration for at least three decades. About 6 years ago, the City changed the road configuration to add parking and bike lanes. As soon as the City installed the parking, people started using it. There was no new development; parked vehicles just magically appeared.
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| On-street parking on 204th Street near 54th Avenue in Langley City. |
On my street today, I know my neighbours have enough space to park in their townhouse garage. Even so, they sometimes park both of their vehicles on the street instead of using their garage.
The point of these two stories is that when we look at on-street street parking utilization, we might think we aren't providing enough on-site parking. In reality, people usually park on the street because it is more convenient than using on-site parking. The on-site parking (visitor and assigned) will sit empty.
The Metro Vancouver Regional District has been studying parking for some time. You can read posts I wrote about this in 2018 and another in 2019.
The regional district found that the parking utilization rate for market rental buildings is 0.49 vehicles per unit near transit and 0.85 vehicles per unit away from transit. The parking utilization rate for strata buildings is 0.89 vehicles per unit near transit and 1.15 vehicles per unit away from transit. Langley City is subject to provincial requirements that do not allow us to set residential parking requirements within 800 metres of SkyTrain Station. Outside the 800 metre zones, we require between 1 and 2 parking spaces per unit.
Metro Vancouver found that "parking costs can be significant when geotechnical challenges, such as poor soil conditions or high water tables, are present (even reaching as high as $230k per stall)." Langley City does have areas with poor soil conditions.
So why does this matter? Parking does contribute to the cost of housing. One of the ways that Langley City can help lower the cost of housing is by reducing minimum on-site parking requirements. For example, instead of requiring 1.5 parking spots for a one-bedroom unit, we could require one. It would still ensure we provide enough on-site parking but help reduce costs to make housing more affordable.
Langley City is updating our zoning bylaw and, as part of that process, is reviewing both on-site and on-street parking in our community.
2 comments:
And maybe buildings could have incentives to have car-share vehicle(s) on-site could cut parking requirements (and costs) further......😀. BTW, we need some car share vehicles available somewheres, NOW.....👍👍✌️
That causes another problem. I live at 204 & 53 and our complex only has four visitor stall, and if those are full you have to park on the street. Only problem with that is everyone at the building across the street takes all the street parking. It’s terrible when parking is available to you and you do not use it, they should be fined for not using provided parking and congesting up all on street parking. It’s unfair to those that actually need street parking, apposed to those who use it for convenience.
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