The City of Saskatoon is considering making changes to the zoning bylaw in the hopes of making affordable housing construction more appealing and helping build density in the city.
The city’s planning, development and community service committee discussed a report on Wednesday on removing the minimum parking regulations with a few options brought to the table.
In the report a list of expectations and outcomes were given if this change were considered, saying that a change to the zoning bylaw wouldn’t mean parking would no longer exist; instead, the decision would be left up to the developers.
“Municipalities indicated that while there is no way to ensure this, it is expected that any change to off-street parking supply will be gradual and balanced as options for alternative modes of transportation become more viable over time,” the report said.
The report said there were trade-offs with parking requirements, giving an example of a large parking lot taking up a lot of space and making neighbourhoods less compact and less walkable.
It added that parking spaces are costly and difficult to maintain.
Options presented in the report included:
- Reductions in parking requirements for affordable housing and ensuring a standard and consistent approach with gradual reductions to overall minimum parking requirements.
- Major reductions to the minimum parking requirements.
- Removal of the minimum parking requirements.
- A combination of the above options.
Lesley Anderson, director of planning and development, gave a presentation on the topic, saying limited engagement with the development industry, business improvement district, business groups and the citizen advisory panel was done, adding that overall, people were divided and felt strongly about removing or maintaining parking requirements.
She stressed that an engagement plan will follow after the committee’s decision and city council’s decision later in December, saying there’s a lot of work to get to the bylaw amendments and the public hearing.
Bertrand Bartake, a local architect, gave a presentation in support of removing the city’s parking requirements, saying that mandates are costly and it should be up to businesses and developers to dictate how much parking is needed.
“It’s an incredibly wasteful use of land,” Bartake said.
He compared land value between a parking lot and a condo building downtown, with the parking lot valued at around $2.2 million and the condo building valued at over $23 million.
Bartake said removing the parking mandate was relatively easy and there’s a huge return on investment from the city’s perspective if more structures like the condo building were incentivized.
Karen Kobussen from Strong Town YXE and Nicole Burgess from the Saskatoon Home Builders also spoke at the meeting and were in support of removing the mandate.
Heather Ryan, a resident in Saskatoon, spoke on the matter, saying that there is insufficient data on making a change like this, suggesting that creating more density within the city could actually increase the need for parking and accessibility.
She said serious policy changes need guarantees that the change will work.
Ryan stressed that affordable housing was incredibly important, but no data was supplied showing that the removal of this mandate would result in more of it.
“None of this seems to take into account any potential increase in density,” Ryan said.
She said having multiple developments on one block could result in a lot of congestion.
A motion for city administration to start the work on removing the requirements and work towards the bylaw amendments and the public hearing was passed. City council will discuss the matter later in December.
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