this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2023
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See final paragraph - set to be the tallest building in Western Canada. The article focuses on the 14 stories of underground parking that will be included, which does seem excessive given that the SkyTrain is literally across the street.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (8 children)

I would love to see the occasional development that goes hard against parking. Build it over or across the street from Skytrain, provide 10% or more Modo/Evo spaces and zero or near zero residents parking. Then cut the price of everything by $60/120K given you're not having to build the cost of underground parking into the prices.

But even if you could persuade the appropriate council to do away with their parking minimums AND there was some way to discourage car owners from buying (have a neighbouring building with lots of parking? Sign some sort of contract?) I know people's lives change. Just because you work downtown and can take the Skytrain today, doesn't mean you're not going to be working in White Rock or Maple Ridge next year. Or a bunch of people are going to shrug, lie about car ownership, buy the cheaper unit and plan to park on the street somewhere - then complain about how they don't have parking in their building.

Actually, my GENIUS PLAN is for nobody to "own" any parking in a building. Have all the spaces owned by a parking organization that rents them out on a month-by-month basis. That way you reduce the price of every unit by the $60K that each space costs to build and the family buying a 2-bed who don't need parking don't pay for it and the couple buying a 1-bed who need two spots can get it too. Also there's none of the "I drive a monster truck but my unit came with a 'small car' space" or "I'm disabled but my unit's space is miles from the elevator" issues... you just rent out appropriate spaces to each unit depending on their needs.

But obviously the developer is going to want their money up front for the parking they built so whatever organization owns & manages the parking is going to need DEEP pockets and the return on investment is very very slow.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Parking spots add value to the units. Even if it costs $100k less to build, the value compared to neighboring units, might be more than $100k less. The developers will earn less and be less inclined to build it.

Obviously if they are given no choice they will build what they can, but there are choices about where to build. If they can choose which project to build and one city eliminates parking in the buildings and another doesn't, then they will go with the more profitable option.

The desire to build parking into the building should go with the demand. As more people eliminate cars, because of the good transit and car share options, they will value parking stalls less. Once the value of a parking stall drops below the cost to build it, they will stop building them.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I don't disagree with you... I think developers would be adverse to investing time and money into a no-parking development. But what's the indicator for them to be watching that purchasers don't value parking stalls?

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