Officials with the City of St. Albert say they’re in a real catch-22 when it comes to the allotment of parking stalls in local business parks.
Recently, the city has been fielding numerous complaints from developers and business owners in Campbell Business Park North about the processes for allotting parking stalls, which they say can leave some owners without the necessary stalls to get a development permit.
Director of planning and development Curtis Cundy said that the major problem, from the city’s perspective, is that many of the business condominium complexes at the centre of the complaints are built on spec, with neither the developer nor the city knowing what businesses will go into the bays and how they will be built when permits are issued, so square footage is all they have to work with to determine how many spaces are needed.
“They come forward with an empty shell,” he said, “so staff isn’t in a position to go to [the land use bylaw] and figure out what the specific parking is for that land use, because they don’t have a tenant yet. So what we have to do is based on a light industrial designation, which has a minimum number of stalls, but then any tenant that goes into those units has to come in for a development permit for the use and, at that point, the parking.”
But, at the same time, Cundy said the city does not want to make developers wait until tenants are lined up before permits are issued.
“We’re trying to take a middle ground, which is to make it economically viable for [developers] to purchase a lot, construct a building and have parking,” he said. “If we were to require that they have the worst-case scenario in each case related to the amount of parking, you’d end up with big lots with lots of parking and small buildings. And many of the individuals coming in to get permits for these things would not view us as very friendly.”
Under the city’s land use bylaw, most non-residential uses require one stall for every 45 square metres of gross floor area. But some uses have very specific requirements:
• casinos and bingo halls require one stall for every 2.5 seats;
• funeral homes require one stall per five seats, plus one for each funeral home vehicle;
• religious assemblies require one stall per eight seats or one stall per 45 square metres of gross floor area, whichever is greater; and
• warehouse stores require one stall per three full-time employees needed during the maximum working shift, plus one stall per 50 square metres of gross floor area.
It’s these requirements that determine whether or not a development permit is issued for the specific business, and can lead to permits being denied if a business is one of the last to buy into a condo complex and there are not enough spaces left over.
“What staff tries to do is warn whoever does those types of developments that you have to be very careful what you do with the tenants you sell this to, because the tenants have to fit into the parking,” Cundy said.
Another issue has been the addition of mezzanine levels to some condos, which increases the square footage and, in turn, the number of stalls required. Development branch manager Jim Killoh said they can’t presume mezzanines will be built in every bay, because that would put undue pressure on developers.
“It’s kind of reaching a compromise between what some of the uses may be that require higher parking requirement and, at the lower end, say, light industrial, where it’s maybe five stalls per unit or less,” Killoh said.
Some businesses caught in this situation are looking at street parking or offsite parking as a solution, but Cundy said the ultimate solution lays with developers in the design stages.
“Don’t scrimp on the amount of parking,” he said. “Make the assumption that you may have some users that are going to be higher-intensive users of parking. Even if it meets the bylaw requirements, it may be that you have more employees in there than was originally anticipated, so make sure you have some additional parking.”
Cundy added that prospective business owners should do their research before committing to any purchase, and the doors are open at the city’s planning and development offices so they or developers can seek advice.
