In April, Hamilton City Council voted to remove minimum parking requirements across most of the Lower City and significantly reduced parking requirements in the rest of Hamilton’s urban areas.
The new bylaw, 24-052, has been appealed to the Ontario Land Tribunal by the West End Home Builders’ Association, Cadillac Fairview (owners of Lime Ridge Mall), and the owners of Eastgate Square.
The main issue in the appeal is the City’s new requirement that all new residential parking spaces, and 50 percent for ‘all other’ uses, be electric vehicle parking.
In May 2019, the Ontario Conservative government removed electric vehicle parking requirements from Ontario’s Building Code.
The question of law before the OLT is whether the City of Hamilton can effectively implement the same requirements using a parking bylaw.
New Bylaw Not in Effect Due to Appeal
The appeal means the bylaw is not yet in force and effect, and all planning applications are judged against the old bylaw.
The result is that Hamilton’s Committee of Adjustment (CoA) is busy with variances requesting parking exceptions under the new bylaw and city staff seeking to deny applications for new parking spots that do not include electric vehicle parking.
Enforcing New Electric Vehicle Requirement
At the July 23 CoA meeting, city staff are asking the committee to deny a homeowner’s application to build a private one-car parking garage because they are not installing an electric vehicle charger.
In unattributed comments, City staff write that the electric vehicle requirement “is to prepare residential parking within the City for a gradual transition to electric vehicle usage with new development or redevelopment” and that the owner should be required to comply with the new bylaw.
My read of the CoA’s membership is they’ll approve the regular old non-electric vehicle parking spot for this private residence.
The role of the CoA is to interpret zoning bylaws for intent, practicality, and to use ‘common sense.’
[City staff are required to provide literal interpretation of prescriptive regulations, which is why they must seek to enforce the new electric vehicle charging requirement.]
Waiving ‘Old’ Bylaw Parking Minimums
Recent residential zoning reforms permit secondary dwelling units, duplexes, triplexes, and multiplexes as-of-right in most residential areas.
With the new parking bylaw removing parking minimums, the City is beginning to receive many building permits to add residential units within existing homes.
Until the OLT appeal is settled, the applicants will require Committee of Adjustment to grant exceptions from the old bylaw before building permits will be issued. (The application fee for the CoA waiver is $705.)
The August 6 CoA hearings include a few of these files.
We should expect to see plenty of parking waivers during the coming year(s) as the parking bylaw appeal goes through the Ontario Land Tribunal.