In the midst of a housing shortage, city officials are looking to build homes on top of some of the country's ~97 million parking spaces.
Driving the news: Toronto is the latest Canadian city to look into converting public parking lots into housing, following the examples of Vancouver, Calgary, Windsor, St. Catharines, and London. Roughly 74 parking lots, about a quarter of the city's lots, could be up for grabs.
- Meanwhile, the city council is also considering a tax on commercial parking spots, a proposal that businesses that rely on being accessible by car have strongly opposed.
Why it matters: You’re probably well aware that Canada’s most-populated cities are dealing with a shortage of affordable housing amid record-high rents, so repurposing ultra-valuable city-owned land like parking lots could be part of the solution to help boost the supply.
- About 3.5 million new housing units must be built by 2030 to meet demand, a number that experts say won’t be reached by the new building projects currently in the works.
- Canada currently has way more parking spots than cars, and experts say that a lot of that space could be used to build affordable housing and make cities more walkable.
Zoom out: Similar efforts to convert underused office buildings into housing have also gained traction. Calgary has green-lit 13 office conversion projects in the last two years, with the first — a 10-storey building with 112 rental units — expected to open this year.—LA