Ottawa's new Zoning By-Law must reduce commercial parking caps and scale them to transect densities.
This page outlines one of the three demands in Ecology Ottawa and Walkable Ottawa’s 15-minute neighbourhood petition.
Large-format stores with high maximum commercial parking allowances make development car-centric and threaten the viability of small shops. 15-minute neighbourhoods need walkable or bikeable neighbourhood-scaled shops and services to support residents, while being supported by residents. Residents shouldn’t have to rely on a car to travel for essential amenities.
Imagine a single large-format store that relies on attracting customers from many neighbourhoods. Perhaps some residents are lucky to live close enough to the store to walk there, although the typical parking lot and car-centric environment doesn’t encourage safe or enjoyable walking. But it’s too far for customers in adjacent neighbourhoods to walk, so they have no choice but to drive, use unreliable public transit, or simply not use this amenity. The large format store greatly reduces the viability of small walkable shops in the immediate neighbourhood as well as adjacent ones, thereby diminishing their walkability. This dynamic is counterproductive to creating and sustaining 15-minute neighbourhoods – a critical pillar of Ottawa’s Official Plan and growth strategy.
Ottawa zoning currently requires a minimum of 1.25 - 3.6 parking spaces per 100 sq.m. of Gross Floor Area (GFA) for retail and/or shopping centre space. The maximum parking space rates in the new draft by-law are 1 - 4 per 100 sq.m. GFA of retail and/or shopping centre space. To get a sense of what that looks like, picture the following existing parking lots:
- Costco (Merivale): 780 spaces, or 5.8 parking spaces/100 sq.m.
- Real Canadian Superstore (Richmond): 209 spaces, or 2.5 parking spaces/100 sq.m.
- Walmart Supercenter (Trainyards): 622 spaces, or 3.8 parking spaces/100 sq.m.
Merivale Costco parking lot with 780 spaces (Google Maps).
Ottawa is proposing a cap of 1 parking space/100 sq.m (for shopping centres), and 2 parking spaces for restaurants, etc. in the Downtown Transect. But in the Inner Urban Transect, the cap jumps to 3.6 and 2.75 parking spaces respectively. For perspective, the Walmart at Trainyards provides roughly 3.8 parking spaces/100 sq. m of store space. That is a lot of parking! How useful are caps that permit levels of parking that support large format, car-dependent stores – and threatens the viability of neighbourhood-scaled shops in 15-Minute Neighbourhoods?
Our Recommendation
The draft Zoning By-Law must reduce the maximum allowed commercial parking rates, as high maximums will only encourage car dependency and reduce walkability. It must consider differentiated rates that are more consistent with graduated density targets by Transect (Downtown, Inner Urban, Outer Urban, Suburban and Rural). In other words, the higher the density, the lower the commercial cap rate should be.
City of Ottawa Transect Policy Areas (See the Official Plan Schedule A)
Sign our petition to urge the City of Ottawa to commit to building 15-minute neighbourhoods. Together, we can create a greener, healthier, and more connected city. Follow us on social media (@ecologyottawa, @walkableottawa, #15MinuteNeighbourhood) for updates!