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Circa 1877 (née Brick Brewery) | 20 fl | Complete
Reading through the posts about car-free condo lifestyles, I'm reminded that Arrow Lofts needed to build an annex to their parking garage because the demand for parking spaces was hindering their ability to sell units, or so I was told.
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Investors will want more parking spots than owner-occupied units, which would help to explain that. Indeed, if you are trying to sell a condo, it helps to be able to market it to those with and without cars. Someone without cars will be more likely to buy a condo with parking spaces than someone with cars would be likely to buy a condo without parking spaces, so it's a safe bet to make.
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(01-12-2017, 08:44 AM)jamincan Wrote: The problem with this analogy is that if the parking supply isn't provided appropriately by the developer, public space ends up being used to supply the development with parking instead. If a grocery store doesn't make enough bread, it's not like we see illegal bread making operations spill over onto public space.

Would it be fair to consider this, or at least its end-result, a sort of tragedy of the commons?
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(01-12-2017, 10:21 AM)tomh009 Wrote: An on-street parking permit, similar to Toronto.  But I don't see why it should be free, regardless of whether you live in a house or a condo.  $50/month sounds very reasonable to me.

Isn't $50/month a rather low price?
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(01-12-2017, 11:43 AM)Viewfromthe42 Wrote: Investors will want more parking spots than owner-occupied units, which would help to explain that. Indeed, if you are trying to sell a condo, it helps to be able to market it to those with and without cars. Someone without cars will be more likely to buy a condo with parking spaces than someone with cars would be likely to buy a condo without parking spaces, so it's a safe bet to make.

I don't understand where you're coming from with that.  I would have thought the opposite.  Arrow Lofts is a heavily owner-occupied unit building, as I understand it.  Most owner-occupiers will also have re-sale in mind, although their timeframes might be longer than those of investors.
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It's speculation is all. What I found interesting about Arrow was that my former company had two separate employees who lived at Arrow, and for both of those employees and their spouses, this was their first foray from suburbia into the core areas. Altogether, they brought 5 vehicles with them.
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(01-11-2017, 11:45 PM)embe Wrote: I'm just trying to understand is it a Condo thing where people don't want parking?  Other than walking (which is good), there are a lot of people that rely on a car to go beyond walking distance to their Job, visit family and friends, travel outside of town etc. 

Why not designated parking spots?  No car, you save the monthly parking spot fee. You have two cars? You pay twice the parking fee as the guy that has no cars, and those two spots are up to you

Just not seeing how a LACK of a parking spot at a residence can be considered a plus.

^ This! Thisthisthisthisthis.

I get the distinct impression that there are a lot of people here who don't have a car, never leave Waterloo Region, and are happy with that. And I keep feeling like it's a lifestyle that's getting shoved down my throat - "It's good enough for me, so it should be good enough for you, too! You're a bad person, because you're an entitled car driver who makes my pedestrian lifestyle feel hostile."

Some of us go on road trips. Some of us like to drive! It's fun. Some people have kids who play soccer and hockey. Are we expected to bike the kids somehow to Soccer and Hockey?

When we lived at the Kaufman Lofts, we only had one parking spot with our unit. But, my husband and I have 2 cars. So, one car sat for 2 years, unused, in my parent's garage in rural Ontario. When we finally moved into a house in KW, phew - I could pull our "fun" car out of storage, work on it in the driveway, and get it back on the road. I would never consider going back to a Condo, with fewer than 2 spots (and, now, without a charging port - looking at swapping one of the cars for an EV).

I get that we want Waterloo Region to be like Amsterdam, Tokyo or Paris. I really do. I love those cities. And they're incredible that you can get everywhere without a car (I wouldn't want to drive in any of them). But we're not there. We're a mostly-rural Ontario town that's growing, and it's just not practical at this point to expect that everyone give up their cars, and never leave the Region.
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A lack of a parking spot can be considered a plus because I don't have to pay for it. As has been said, at 30-50K for an underground spot, I would much rather see a developer charging that much for each spot, so that I can choose to not pay it and get what I want. Currently, anyone wanting to live in downtown areas can very easily find places with sufficient parking, or where it can be acquired. However, it is very nearly impossible to find a condo anywhere in the region where you can get a unit with parking for $X, but a unit without parking for $X-50,000. I'm not even being offered the choice, whereas everything is required, seemingly, to be designed and built to drivers' needs. I'm fine with plenty being built to drivers' needs, but I'd like at least a single option in this region of ~600,000 to be built to my needs. I wouldn't think that this would be so hard to offer.
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(01-12-2017, 01:42 PM)Canard Wrote:
(01-11-2017, 11:45 PM)embe Wrote: Just not seeing how a LACK of a parking spot at a residence can be considered a plus.

^ This!  Thisthisthisthisthis.

I get the distinct impression that there are a lot of people here who don't have a car, never leave Waterloo Region, and are happy with that.  And I keep feeling like it's a lifestyle that's getting shoved down my throat - "It's good enough for me, so it should be good enough for you, too! You're a bad person, because you're an entitled car driver who makes my pedestrian lifestyle feel hostile."

But... it's not.

There are literally a hundred thousand places to live in KW that have ample parking, and no one is taking those away.

"No parking" is absolutely not a selling point, I agree!
But when you make "no parking" an option, then suddenly you have some housing that is much cheaper than it otherwise would be, and that sure is a selling point, for some people.

This forum focuses on new construction, and it's on new construction that we can begin to move the needle so that those who don't need a car, aren't compelled to pay for a parking space too (either directly, or through a hidden subsidy).
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You can leave Waterloo Region very well without owning a car. Our intercity public transit, while not great, is much better than people often give it credit for- I went to Toronto the other day by Go train, and had the opportunity to come back home earlier than I had expected. No problem, as we now have hourly Go service via Bramalea.

Between transit, car sharing, and car rental, no one is trapped in Waterloo Region just because they happen not to own a car.

timc wrote:

Quote:Isn't $50/month a rather low price?
In Toronto, if you don't have a parking space on your property, an on-street permit costs less than twenty dollars a month. If you do, it's barely fifty dollars a month.
In the neighbourhood I lived in Hamilton, many people had parking permits, because many of the homes had no parking. It really was necessary at times as there was a busy shopping street very nearby, at least occasionally parking would be quite limited. Those permits were not even ten dollars a month, which I figure could barely even cover the cost of delivering the program. Still some people managed to complain about the cost.
If we ever need resident on-street parking permits in KW (I can't imagine where- which neighbourhoods have a lot of properties with no onsite parking?), the fee would not be $50 per month.
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(01-12-2017, 11:51 AM)timc Wrote:
(01-12-2017, 10:21 AM)tomh009 Wrote: An on-street parking permit, similar to Toronto.  But I don't see why it should be free, regardless of whether you live in a house or a condo.  $50/month sounds very reasonable to me.

Isn't $50/month a rather low price?

Oh, it is, compared to a spot at a commercial lot.  On the other hand, there is no guaranteed space with street parking.

But in any case $50 (or $75 or $100) is much better than handing out free parking to people who already have driveways.
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(01-12-2017, 02:40 PM)MidTowner Wrote: timc wrote:
Quote:Isn't $50/month a rather low price?
In Toronto, if you don't have a parking space on your property, an on-street permit costs less than twenty dollars a month. If you do, it's barely fifty dollars a month.
In the neighbourhood I lived in Hamilton, many people had parking permits, because many of the homes had no parking. It really was necessary at times as there was a busy shopping street very nearby, at least occasionally parking would be quite limited. Those permits were not even ten dollars a month, which I figure could barely even cover the cost of delivering the program. Still some people managed to complain about the cost.
If we ever need resident on-street parking permits in KW (I can't imagine where- which neighbourhoods have a lot of properties with no onsite parking?), the fee would not be $50 per month.

I think the properties we started talking about all have driveways, so a fee higher than $10 or $20/month is quite justifiable in my opinion.  Of course any fee greater than $0 will elicit some complaints.
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As it would if you started charging for MUT passes.
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(01-12-2017, 05:09 PM)Canard Wrote: As it would if you started charging for MUT passes.

I think not quite the same thing!  The city currently does not allow overnight parking, the permit would provide parking that currently does not exist.
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(01-12-2017, 02:15 PM)Markster Wrote: "No parking" is absolutely not a selling point, I agree!
But when you make "no parking" an option, then suddenly you have some housing that is much cheaper than it otherwise would be, and that sure is a selling point, for some people.

This forum focuses on new construction, and it's on new construction that we can begin to move the needle so that those who don't need a car, aren't compelled to pay for a parking space too (either directly, or through a hidden subsidy).

Thanks Markster, I hadn't thought of it that way before. I see what you're saying.
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