Apparently the development has “90% less parking than is stipulated by Vancouver by-laws” which is bloody fantastic for the house pricing. Having to build underground parking supposedly adds $100+k per home cost for a condo tower.
I imagine they would also embrace car-sharing networks, right? Seems like a very intuitive way of maximizing flexibility without requiring extensive underground parking lots. Either way, something that the Burnaby developments could take notes from.
I believe they’re also wanting the millenium line UBC extension to have a Jericho station. That’s still quite a ways away but it’s good that they’re keeping it in mind for the project.
Unfortunately it’s also one of those things where the NIMBYs do technically have a point; selling housing without parking doesn’t get incoming residents to lose their cars - they’re just going to put them in the closest uncontrolled spot, which will legitimately fuck up the neighborhood.
The requirement to have ‘adequate’ parking for a new residential tower isn’t about meaningless inflation of prices - it’s to make sure that the tower bears the cost and not the neighborhood.
We don’t have meaningful mechanisms for ‘making’ people give up cars, and even if we could - transit isn’t great enough in that region that it’s necessarily a reasonable ask, especially for folks going in for the sub-market or similar, who are typically working jobs that can’t be done remotely and are located off transit arterials, like construction or warehouse work.
I mean, a meaningful mechanism is to not provide free car storage.
That area is already a priority for transit improvements; the designs even include a skytrain station for a millenium line extension, which is one of Translink’s 10 year priorities. For the timeline of this project it seems pretty feasible, and building this project will push for the long-awaited extension even more, since it adds a huge trip generator and could reduce costs if built in conjunction.
And sure, plenty of people work jobs that require them to own a vehicle. But plenty of people don’t. Just because non car-oriented housing doesn’t fit everyone’s lifestyle doesn’t mean we should build every home with parking. Plenty of people work jobs that require a den, but we don’t mandate a den in every home because a few people need one.
And concerns about street parking? Street parking for most residential streets over in Victoria are designated as ‘resident parking only’. As far as I can tell it works fine. Any reason that wouldn’t work in this neighbourhood?
That’s what I don’t get. This development clearly isn’t targeting those people who need to own multiple cars for their job. There are housing developments for those people.
Why are some people so stuck on the idea that every house should have stuff for everyone?
I feel like concerns about neighbourhood parking getting out of control is overblown. If you’re someone who relies on your vehicle so much that you can’t envision life without it, are you really willing to put up with regularly finding an open parking spot on a side street, walking 10+ minutes back to your home, and then having to remember where you parked your car this time when you head back? Sounds like a bloody nightmare.
I’m sure some people would do it, especially since being picky isn’t always an option in the current housing environment. But I suspect the vast majority wouldn’t even consider it an option.
Exactly! Plus, you’re already connected by SkyTrain to key points of interest, so your car usage would probably be quite limited anyway.
