Developers will not be required to provide as many parking stalls

Photo: One Water Street

As the city densifies, the requirement for parking is lessening.

Developers in Kelowna will be required to provide fewer, not more parking spaces per unit in the near future.

City council Monday approved a series of parking rate changes aimed at reducing the number of vehicles at any particular development.

Plus, developers will have the opportunity to reduce those numbers even more if they provide car share stalls or more bicycle spaces than the new regulations require.

City planner Adam Cseke says the changes are meant to update old, outdated regulations while, at the same time, incorporating a number of city initiatives including the Kelowna Housing Strategy, Community Climate Action Plan, Imagine Kelowna, the Pedestrian and Bicycle Master Plan and Car-Share Strategy.

 Where current rates require developers to provide one or more parking stalls per unit depending on size in C5 and C7 zones, new regulations would require only 0.8 stalls for a bachelor suite, 0.9 for a one bedroom and one stall for anything above.

Developers would also be able to reduce the required number by five stalls for each car share stall up to a 20 per cent reduction.

Cseke says those agreeing to zone property for rental only would be allowed a 20 per cent parking rate reduction within the urban centre and 10 per cent outside.

As for the controversial tandem parking, Cseke says staff was looking at an outright ban for multi-family housing but felt it more appropriate to put in restrictions outside the urban core.

Councillors Mohini Singh and Maxine DeHart both had reservations about tandem parking rules.

DeHart said councillors continue to hear complaints over and over about tandem parking.

"Vehicles just end up on the street," she said.

Coun. Brad Sieben said he would support the changes, but has some reservations.

"At times, I've had issue with our pay-in-lieu policy where sometimes it doesn't necessarily deal with the performance of particular developments. You pay to have a reduction, but it may not actually benefit the parking in that area," said Sieben.

"I do hope this is going to be monitored quite closely, making sure that we are not having some unintended consequences."

As the city densifies and urbanizes, Sieben says parking becomes a major factor.