In a city with parking restrictions on major commercial office development that is investing in a new LRT system with a downtown subway, why are we still talking about cash in lieu of parking?
The theory behind it is that businesses that don’t provide enough parking spaces for their customers will push the burden onto the city to provide it, and should pay accordingly. EXCEPT, we’re also trying to encourage people not to drive when it is unnecessary and build a more urban community. How do you square these goals with a policy of punishing businesses operating with fewer parking spaces?
Getting rid of this tax on urban form would help reducing the imbalance of commercial viability between suburban and urban businesses and further discourage badly designed urban sprawl. The current policy only encourages more parking lagoons to avoid an unreasonable city fee.
Council was right to rule as they did, because there is no reason a restaurant in a dense urban neighbourhood should have let alone be legally required to have more than 17 parking spaces. If the city can’t lose the revenue, consider a new fee, a tax on parking spaces themselves. This would better capture the externality of providing suburban inefficient road, sewer and utility infrastructure, and encourage businesses to locate and design their buildings to allow more of their customers to reach them by foot, bike, or transit.
