Parking
Ottawa Parking Management Strategy and Governance Review
The City of Ottawa initially retained BA Group in 2008 to assist with the development of a comprehensive parking management strategy (Municipal Parking Management Strategy, MPMS) for its municipal parking operations. The MPMS included extensive stakeholder consultations to address a wide range of interests and groups (e.g. ratepayers associations, BIAs). The feedback was considered within the implementation plan which recommended future expansion through a Local Area Study process, parking rate setting guidelines, establishment of a permanent parking consultation group, and an annual reporting process.
BA Group was also retained in 2018-2019 as part of the MPMS Refresh to provide general advice regarding other issues that were raised. Our work included the preparation of three background whitepapers related to governance, parking rate setting guidelines, and technology considerations. As part of the consultation process, BA Group has been involved with four Parking Stakeholder Consultation Group meetings, two public open houses, and several meetings with key City Councillors. The Municipal Parking Management Strategy Refresh is currently scheduled to be presented to Transportation Committee and City Council in October 2019.
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Downtown London Parking Strategy
The provision, management and supply of parking are an area of special relevance to the City of London’s: “Our Move Forward: London’s Downtown Plan”. The key to unlocking the downtown’s potential will be the replacement of surface parking lots with new development. To begin this process, BA Group prepared a Downtown Parking Strategy that reviewed existing parking conditions and future development potential. This study was guided by relevant aspects of transportation and downtown policies that are currently in place.
Our work involved extensive stakeholder engagement in a series of interviews in order to obtain insight into specific concerns from various groups and a review of existing parking conditions. BA Group established A Vision, Mission, Key Goals and Objectives to guide and direct the implementation of the parking strategy. Our recommendations included direction regarding the City’s future role in the provision of shared public parking resources, integration of Transportation Demand Management within the parking strategy, parking supply requirements in the zoning by-law, and payment-in-lieu policies. A parking system management structure and funding plan was also developed.
Kingston Zoning By-Law: Multi-Unit Residential Parking Supply Review Requirement
The City of Kingston is in the process of creating a single comprehensive Zoning By-law, which consolidates, updates and replaces the five existing Zoning By-laws that apply to different areas across Kingston. To successfully support and manage development within Kingston, the City is proactively reviewing its existing multi-unit residential parking standards.
BA Group was retained to provide parking advisory services for the entire City of Kingston. We prepared a report that assessed and recommended appropriate Zoning By-law standards for multi-unit residential buildings. In support of policy and demographic analysis, residential parking demand studies were conducted across the city at various multi-unit residential buildings. The parking studies focused upon peak resident parking demand and peak residential visitor parking demand. In addition, residential parking space sales and leasing data were obtained for analysis purposes. The aforementioned work was used as a basis to provide recommendations to the City to establish new Zoning By-law minimum parking requirements for multi-unit residential buildings city-wide, based on parking areas (i.e. policy areas). Supplementary analysis included a review of the City’s “cash-in-lieu” of parking by-law and the City’s parking study review process.
