Abstract Manager

Background information

The City of Vancouver’s Climate Emergency Action Plan aims to eliminate minimum vehicle parking requirements (minimums) citywide. Environmental and economic analyses was undertaken to study the potential impacts of an expanding the removal of minimums to the West End of Downtown and Broadway Plan Area.

Key issues

Minimum off-street parking requirements have historically been in place to ensure that vehicles can park off-street and not rely on curbside parking. An unintended consequence has been an oversupply of parking spaces, higher greenhouse gas emissions from construction, and reduced flexibility for developers.

Objectives

A consultant study was undertaken to determine how the removal of minimums could reduce carbon emissions. In addition, a first-of-its-kind economic analysis would determine the impacts of removing parking minimums on multi-family residential developments.

Methodology

Economic analysis work assessed the uptake of parking in recently constructed residential buildings, the cost of parking construction and its impact on unit costs, and the amount of parking likely to be provided by developers in the absence of minimums.

Conclusions

It was found that avoided parking stall construction could significantly reduce the amount of embodied emissions and somewhat reduce vehicle ownership. The economic analysis determined that removing minimums would increase the number of financially attractive projects, improve certainty of requirements for developers, and support reductions in construction costs to enable increased affordability at non-market rental projects. This work will assist other Canadian municipalities looking to reduce environmental impact from both construction and vehicle use.