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Last week, City Council's Planning and Housing Committee and Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee held a joint meeting to discuss Draft 2 of Ottawa's new Zoning By-law. Most provisions have been carried over from Draft 1, but we spoke against the high commercial parking allowances for shopping centres.
You can read our remarks below or watch them here. As part of our 15-minute neighbourhoods campaign, we are working with Walkable Ottawa to get parking maximums reduced in Draft 3 this Fall. You can learn more about the Zoning By-law and stay informed about next steps through the Engage Ottawa page.
Our Climate Organizer Nick Grover's delegation to the joint committee.
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Thank you, Chair.
Like Draft 1, there’s lots to like in this version of the Zoning By-law. Four units as of right, intensification near hubs, and removal of parking minimums will support critical objectives of supporting 15-minute neighbourhoods, sustainable transportation options, less car use, and a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions reduction.
But there's one area of the ZBL that will undermine these goals, the very high commercial parking maximums - if they are even to be applied.
Parking maximums are a great idea. Parking has a huge opportunity cost. By limiting how much space is devoted to parking, more space is logically available for retail, housing, or greenspace, making the area more walkable and less car-centric. It also levels the playing field between big box stores and smaller local businesses; if large shopping malls are set up to accommodate people from all over the city, new population growth will be immediately siphoned off from smaller local businesses.
Allowing too much parking means large tracts of impermeable surface replacing, usually, existing greenspace and ecosystems. This leads to less water absorption and more risk of flooding plus a heat island effect on hot days. It also vastly reduces the potential to encourage public transit as a mode share.
3.6 spaces per 100m² is on the higher end of what existing shops already have. And when you look at where these caps on parking will even apply - new developments in Area B and C, within 600m of LRT or Transitway - it's unclear this constitutes much of a ceiling at all.
Tightening up rules around these maximums would ensure they have the desired impact in supporting our long range objectives as a city. I would like to propose three ideas:
- In addition to rapid transit proximity, maximums should be applied in proximity to existing or planned frequent transit stops as well. A bus that runs every 15 mins is a viable alternative to driving if we encourage it in our planning.
- Maximums near transit should be lowered to 2 spaces per 100m², to make these stops a convenient walkable option for shoppers. On a hot summer day, with arms full of groceries and shopping bags, having to walk across a large hot parking lot to get to the bus stop will mean many people avoid that option. We have to make it attractive and enticing in our design.
- Lastly, we should emulate Australia in capping spaces for stores over 1500m². As our population grows, these large stores have a huge advantage in siphoning off demand from smaller shops - the kind we should be encouraging for 15-minute neighbourhoods and walkability.
Much in this document sets us on a good track for the next 20 years of planning, but these years are far too crucial from a climate and ecological perspective to waste any opportunity to promote sustainable transportation and complete neighbourhoods. Let’s not waste an ounce of the chance we have here.
