A Sarnia resident is calling on city council to eliminate minimum parking requirements for residential developments, aiming to align the city with best practices that benefit the environment and housing affordability.
Dr. Robert Dickieson told council Oct. 28 that the current bylaw requiring “parking minimums” for residential developments can force developers to provide more parking spaces than needed when constructing homes and apartment buildings.
Replacing parking minimums with “parking maximums,” he said, is a more sustainable option.
Citing research from Donald Shoup, a professor of urban planning at UCLA and a renowned parking expert who has shown how reducing parking mandates can decrease car dependency and promote affordable housing, Dickieson said parking minimums leave a negative environmental footprint by creating unnecessary land use, inflate development costs and make housing less affordable.
“Studies show that these requirements drive up housing construction costs by 15 to 20 per cent, limit affordable housing options and lead to larger, more expensive units as the developers attempt to offset the cost of parking,” Dickieson told council.
“In Sarnia, I observed that parking minimums hinder the addition of much needed housing. While large-scale developers may have the resources to navigate the bureaucratic red tape and request exemptions, small-scale developers often lack these resources.”
Under current bylaws adopted in 2002, most residential developments – including apartment buildings, duplexes, triplexes and townhouses – require 1.5 parking spaces per unit. Single detached, semi-detached and additional dwelling units require one space.
Dickieson's delegation was in reaction to a report city staff recently drafted on parking ratios for residential developments. The report provides context on what needs to be considered when the city evaluates site-specific requests.
While eliminating parking minimum bylaws isn't widespread across Canada, there has been some buy-in from large cities. Edmonton became the first major Canadian city to eliminate parking minimums in 2020. Calgary, Toronto and Montreal have followed suit.
In 2017, Buffalo, N.Y. became the first major North American city to eliminate parking minimums. Austin, Tex.; San Jose, Calif.; and Anchorage, Alaska are among the more than 50 municipalities in the U.S. that have eliminated parking minimums.
Reducing car dependency and affordable housing is being attributed to two of America's largest cities. According to the U.S.-based Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, Mexico City, which eliminated parking minimums in 2017, is expecting up to 17,000 fewer cars on the city's streets every year to 2030. Eliminating parking minimums near public transit stations has allowed developers in Sao Paulo, Brazil, to build more social housing closer to the city centre. Sao Paulo eliminated parking minimums in 2014.
According to the Institute's website, removing the incentive for car ownership by eliminating parking minimums, "reduces massive amounts of greenhouse gas emissions at no cost to the taxpayer."
In a report prepared for Council, Dickieson said Shoup's research indicates that eliminating parking minimums can lead to more affordable housing, “particularly in walkable, transit-oriented areas like those Sarnia aims to develop.”
Following Dickieson's address, Coun. Chrissy McRoberts moved to send Dickieson's report to city staff for review and the motion was passed.
Stacey Forfar, Sarnia's General Manager of Community Services, told Council that city staff would be returning in November with a presentation on the draft zoning bylaw and is looking for adoption either at the end of the year or in the first quarter of 2025.
Forfar added that Dickieson's presentation and report will be taken into consideration.
“We can certainly add some commentary to that report and presentation that's helpful on parking maximums and make use of that,” she said.