Recommended Parking Requirements for New Development

The Zoning By-law Amendments respond to the request made by Planning and Housing Committee for a review of the City's parking requirements in the Zoning By-law 569-2013. The recommended Zoning By-law Amendments (Attachment 1 and 2) reflect staff's analysis, feedback received through public consultations, discussions with relevant City Divisions and Agencies, and research across other major cities. Updating the City's parking standards to better manage auto dependency and achieve a better balance between building too much or too little parking ultimately contributes to building more sustainable and healthy communities. The City is facing several major challenges including a climate emergency; decreasing housing affordability; and increasing demand for mobility. While not sufficient on its own to overcome these challenges, more strategic, thoughtful management of the parking supply will contribute to addressing all of these challenges. In order to achieve Council's target for net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, aggressive action must be taken to curb the emissions from the transportation sector. Minimum parking requirements lead to the overbuilding of parking and support the continued growth of those emissions. Introducing maximum parking permissions will slow that growth in automobile use and resultant emissions. Housing affordability is a significant challenge in Toronto. The cost of constructing and maintaining parking is significant; minimum parking requirements limits households' ability to avoid those costs. Further, minimum parking requirements may result in households in multi-unit residential buildings who do not own automobiles subsidizing the cost of parking for other residents of the building who do. This is inequitable, as higher-income households are more likely to own automobiles. Easily available parking encourages people to drive more often. More people driving contributes to worsening traffic congestion, slowing transit operating in mixed traffic and making it more difficult to improve travel conditions for alternatives like transit, walking and cycling. To accommodate the growing demand for travel that will come with the City's growing population and employment base, the City will need to promote more space efficient modes of travel and discourage automobile travel. Recognizing these challenges, this review of the parking standards in the city-wide Zoning By-law 569-2013 was guided by the principle that parking standards should allow only the maximum amount of automobile parking reasonably required for a given use and minimums should be avoided except where necessary to ensure equitable access. New developments will still have to provide adequate parking onsite, and not assume residents will be able to park on street. The resulting recommended Amendments to the Zoning By-law will more aggressively implement Official Plan policies related to discouraging auto dependence and encouraging walking, cycling and transit over other modes of passenger travel, clarify expectations related to the provision of infrastructure to support lower parking rates and simplify the Zoning By-law. The Amendments also support the City's climate action strategy, TransformTO, and Provincial land use policies, namely the Provincial Policy Statement and the Growth Plan (2019) as amended. Among other things, the Amendments would: Create two new Parking Zones to administer the recommended parking rates; Group existing land uses into categories to simplify and reduce the number of parking rates; Eliminate most minimum parking standards; Introduce maximum parking standards where they do not already exist, for most uses; Eliminate the use of Parking Occupancy Rates; Maintain or increase accessible parking requirements; Introduce requirements for electric vehicle infrastructure and permissions for charging equipment within required parking space dimensions; Increase "short-term" bicycle parking rates for residential uses in Bicycle Zone 1 and introduce a payment-in-lieu of bicycle parking provision; Amend zone-specific regulations related to parking to accommodate the replacement of parking minimums with parking maximums; and Introduce other requirements to support low parking rates. These changes will reduce the growth of the City's parking supply while allowing those who need parking to have access to it. The removal of minimum parking standards does not remove existing parking, nor prevent new parking from being built. Staff will continue to work across divisions and agencies to advance the City's policy objectives related to parking, including further revisions to the Zoning By-law and a review of the City's current approach to residential on-street parking, front yard parking and boulevard parking.

3. City Council authorize the City Solicitor to make such stylistic and technical changes to the Zoning By-law Amendment as may be required. 4. Before introducing the necessary Bills contemplated in Recommendation 2 above, to City Council for enactment, the elements necessary for the successful implementation of the Payment-in-Lieu of Bicycle Parking provision must be in place, to the satisfaction of the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning and the City Solicitor, including the establishment of a reserve fund and the necessary updates to the City's business systems. 5. City Council delegate approval and signing authority to the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning and his or her representatives for agreements related to payments-in-lieu of bicycle parking under Clause 230.5.10.11(7) of Zoning By-law 569-2013, as amended, in a form satisfactory to the City Solicitor. 6. City Council direct the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning to use $500 per "short-term" bicycle parking space reduced, adjusted for inflation, as the basis upon which payments under Clause 230.5.10.11(7) of Zoning By-law 569-2013, as amended, be calculated. 7. City Council direct the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning or designate to report to the appropriate standing committee annually on the exercise of any delegated authority in Recommendation 5 above. 8. City Council approve the establishment of an obligatory reserve fund called the 'Payment-In-Lieu of Bicycle Parking Reserve Fund' in Appendix C, Schedule 17, Parking Authority Reserve Funds of the City of Toronto Municipal Code Chapter 227, Reserves and Reserve Funds, the purpose of which is to receive payments-in-lieu of bicycle parking contributions received pursuant to Section 40 of Planning Act with monies applied to the acquisition of new bike share stations and bike share bicycles with criteria as set out in Attachment 3. 9. City Council direct the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning, in collaboration with the General Manager, Transportation Services, to include potential amendments to the City of Toronto Municipal Code, Chapter 925, Permit Parking in order to exclude residents of, visitors to or tradespersons at addresses associated with new Zoning By-law Amendment Applications in all directions reports or final reports, where the addresses have not already been excluded. 10. City Council direct the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning to include the following as approval conditions for all Site Plan Control Applications: The Owner shall insert the advisory clause contained in Attachment 4 of this report into all purchases, agreements of purchase and sale or agreements to lease, and condominium declaration document(s) for each affected residential unit within the Development. The Owner must notify the Manager, Parking and Administration, Transportation Services Division that their property located at [replace with address of development] is to be excluded from permit parking area [replace with applicable parking area]. 11. City Council direct the General Manager, Transportation Services to report periodically so that City Council can consider amendments to the City of Toronto Municipal Code, Chapter 925, Permit Parking, to exclude residents of, visitors to or tradespersons at properties about which they have been notified are to be removed. 12. City Council direct the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning to revise the performance measures for electric vehicle requirements in the Toronto Green Standard Version 4 in accordance with the revised Zoning Bylaw. 13. City Council request the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning to continue work on the Review of Parking Requirements in the Zoning By-law as part of the City-wide Parking Strategy. This work should include: Exploration of options to ensure access to Type A accessible spaces for users of accessible vans; Review of required minimum rates for accessible parking spaces; Review of the City's Guidelines for the Design and Management of Bicycle Parking Facilities; Review of the required minimum rates for bicycle parking in Zoning By-law 569-2013; Development of guidelines for travel demand management guide for the City to apply when considering development applications, when evaluating whether developments have met the Toronto Green Standard requirements related to single-occupant vehicle trip reductions, and in assessing the adequacy of mobility provisions in the City-initiated development; Establishment of a parking monitoring program; and Review of Chapter 220 - Loading Space Regulations of Zoning By-law 569-2013.