500 units, 7 spots: Revisit visitor parking rules, Toronto councillors urge

In the Parkway Forest pocket of North York, a row of well-kept three-storey townhomes is slated to be demolished, making room for a higher-density residential tower.

In the Parkway Forest pocket of North York, a row of well-kept three-storey townhomes is slated to be demolished, making room for a higher-density residential tower.

“This is going to be a 35-storey building,” Don Valley North Councillor Shelley Carroll explained Wednesday.

The problem, Carroll says, is that for the more than 300 new units that are set to be built, there will only be five visitor parking spots.

“Development applications keep right on coming in, and they're all going for the least possible amounts in terms of parking requirements,” she said.

One ward west, a 44-storey mixed-use condo and retail building will soon sprout out of the now-gas station site on the southwest corner of Bayview Ave. and Sheppard Ave. W. More than 500 units were proposed for the project – but just seven visitor parking spots.

Willowdale Councillor Lily Cheng was able to successfully negotiate an additional seven spots, according to Cheng, but there is growing concern among some of Toronto’s suburban councillors that valuable visitor parking outside of the core is disappearing as new developments take hold – presenting a mounting challenge to condo-dwellers who need vehicle space for drop-offs, deliveries – and plainly, visitors.

“My friends came here, and they don't have any visitor parking [here] to park anywhere,” resident Anil Kambally said of his Don Valley North condo. “So they go to the Fairview Mall, and they park their car, and they'll come here.”