Force owners to fix old lots, developer urges

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 09/12/2010 (5412 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

City hall could dramatically shrink the surplus of downtown surface parking lots if it just cracked down on the ugly ones, says one downtown advocate.

The trouble is, most of the 154 lots downtown don’t have to comply with new, progressive building standards created several years ago when city planners overhauled the downtown zoning bylaw.

The city says, as much as it would like to force surface lots to improve, it’s just not possible.

“I think that’s nonsense. I think the city can enforce and be retroactive,” said Hart Mallin, a developer and downtown advocate. “This isn’t about private property rights. It’s an abrogation of public rights by the use of lots improperly. They are taking advantage of the situation.”

Mallin owns one small lot that’s part of a building, and he recently sold another lot on the downtown’s western outskirts. That lot likely would have needed $100,000 worth of improvements to meet modern standards like proper drainage, asphalt surfacing and parking space size.

Mallin said dozens of lots downtown are the same.

“Make them conform with regulations and see if there there’s a economic value to the owner then,” said Mallin. “It’s time for the city to change the grandfathering clause. Give people five or seven years to comply but these lots should comply with modern standards.”

Meanwhile, beautification rules common in other cities effectively don’t exist in Winnipeg.

Many cities, including Charlotte, N.C., demand a certain number of trees per parking space, a row of hedges or shrubs to screen a lot, proper lighting and good pedestrian cut-throughs. Toronto has 40 pages of similar design guidelines for surface lots.

Winnipeg doesn’t, and that results in “excessive, under-maintained eyesores on the urban landscape,” according to a Feb. 2010 report by a committee of parking experts.

The committee, a panel formed by the International Downtown Association and the International Parking Institute, echoed Mallin’s recommendation. They said city hall should find a way to repeal the grandfathering clause that exempts old surface lots from new standards.

They also suggested offering tax rebates to lot owners who improve and beautify their lots.

The Winnipeg Charter says new zoning and design rules can’t be retroactively applied to existing properties — that would be an undue infringement on property rights. The rules in place when a surface lot was zoned or given a conditional use permit in the 1970s and 1980s are the ones that still apply, said Martin Grady, the city’s zoning and permits boss.

There is, effectively if unofficially, a moratorium on new surface lots in the downtown, so the city has no opportunity to test-drive tougher building and design rules.

If the city could crack down on surface lots, it certainly would, said Grady.

That doesn’t stop surface-lot owners from upgrading their lots voluntarily.

About 30 lots, including some monster ones, are owned by the city and province, which could beautify their lots as a way to leverage more economic development downtown.

maryagnes.welch@freepress.mb.ca

Downtown Winnipeg's Surface Parking Lots
Publicly owned lots are indicated by red pointers; private lots are indicated by yellow pointers.

We’ve endeavoured to ensure the map pointers are roughly accurate, but they may not be precisely on a lot’s location due to limitations of Google's mapping technology. Please help us improve the database by alerting us to omissions or mistakes via email or the comment box below.  The text version of this database is also available online.