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Parking in Waterloo Region
(10-02-2018, 11:47 AM)Canard Wrote: My general observation is that those who don't drive or own a car seem to think there is too much parking, while those who do, think there isn't enough.

Weren't you the one who just said we shouldn't generalize about people?

For the vast majority, we are all multi-modal in our transportation choices and have observations from each type of experience.

I walk. I bike. I take GRT. I drive. I am a car passenger.

I gather insight about many things about our community, including parking, while in transit on any mode and draw my conclusions based on all of those experiences.

My observations about the parking situation in our region is informed from those observations and the reports and data produced by the various government bodies.

Based on all that input I have decided that in 99.9% of local situations there is too much parking, not enough of a premium on parking, and that we still cater to owners of dockless vehicles (myself included) far too much. Until I have experiences and data to the contrary that is what I will continue to believe.
Everyone move to the back of the bus and we all get home faster.
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I was just reading the Brick Brewery thread, and there was a heated discussion about whether people would buy units without parking, how much of a price premium does a unit with a parking spot command, etc.

One thing that everyone seemed to take for granted was that if you own the condo unit, you either buy a parking spot or you do without. The possibility of having a condo building where all the parking spots are rented from the board didn't seem to come up at all. I'm surprised that isn't the default option. It greatly increases flexibility, since if your parking needs change you can just rent more or fewer spaces.

Are there any condo buildings in the area that rent all there parking, and if there aren't, does anyone know why?
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That would be an awesome way to do it. I stressed endlessly when we were at the Kaufman Lofts because I had to keep our second car at my parents' place and couldn't get it back on the road until we moved, because our unit only came with one spot.
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That's an interesting idea. So the condo board would buy them all from the developer? How would that work?
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(02-26-2019, 10:28 PM)Spokes Wrote: That's an interesting idea.  So the condo board would buy them all from the developer?  How would that work?

I'm not an expert, but I assume it could be handled the way other common property is.  Right now, I believe when you buy a condo, you also hold the deed to the parking space (and sometimes locker space, which could also be handled the same way).  Some condos I believe treat parking as an exclusive use common property, like a balcony, where I believe it's owned by the condo corporation, and the condo corporation manages all aspects like maintenance, but for which use is exclusively restricted to one owner.

I don't know of a reason (but there may still be one) where parking is treated as fully common property, like our building has a party room (and some buildings even have full guest suites), which an owner may reserve for a period of time, sometimes for a fee, sometimes not, for exclusive use during the duration.  I would guess parking could be handled the same way.  The tricky part might be transitioning between owners, i.e., if I have a reservation of the party room, and I sell my unit, I don't know whether the new owner would get the party room reservation, while this example is kinda irrelevant, for parking, in a building with high demand for parking, a right of reservation might be quite valuable.

In my building right now, there are multiple people seeking additional parking spaces.  They might be displeased to know I use my space to store my bikes...or maybe they'd just be more supportive of finding space for a bike room (which many condos in fact manage as common property, but usually without paid reservations).
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Another issue with condo parking, is that is often quite specific about where a parking spot is for a given unit, just the same way that your unit has a specific location within the development. Depending on the layout of the parking area, it could be quite complicated to track where a specific spot sits, especially if there are fluctuating parking needs. One workaround could be that each unit gets one designated (reserved) spot while an additional level of parking would be used for rental spots, on an unreserved basis.
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At Kaufman, there was no relationship or grid or system to define which spot went with which unit. People would have bought two spots and they could have been on opposite sides of the lot. It was bizzare. Somehow I ended up with the spot second-furthest from the doors.
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Parking spots, even if owned, should be titled as separate units of their own. There is no good reason why an owner shouldn’t be able to sell their parking spot to somebody else, or agree to switch spots with somebody else, possibly for compensation.
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(03-01-2019, 10:36 PM)ijmorlan Wrote: Parking spots, even if owned, should be titled as separate units of their own. There is no good reason why an owner shouldn’t be able to sell their parking spot to somebody else, or agree to switch spots with somebody else, possibly for compensation.

I bet that triggers a lot more paperwork & real estate transactions, as opposed to renting from the condo corp or having lots bound to the units.
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Correct; we had three “properties”:
  • The condo unit itself
  • a parking space
  • a storage locker

On all the documents we had to sign these three things were listed separately.
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(03-01-2019, 10:36 PM)ijmorlan Wrote: Parking spots, even if owned, should be titled as separate units of their own. There is no good reason why an owner shouldn’t be able to sell their parking spot to somebody else, or agree to switch spots with somebody else, possibly for compensation.

This really depends on the specific condo corporation's declaration. Some corporations will provide a given unit with the right to park a vehicle (or two, as the case may be) in any available parking spot; others, including Kaufman and ours, have the parking spaces deeded to specific units. It is possible to transfer a parking space (declaration permitting) to another unit, but legal paperwork is required.

Of course, you can informally agree to swap deeded spaces with another owner, or rent your space to someone else. But actually transferring ownership requires deeding the space to someone else.
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(03-02-2019, 04:14 PM)tomh009 Wrote:
(03-01-2019, 10:36 PM)ijmorlan Wrote: Parking spots, even if owned, should be titled as separate units of their own. There is no good reason why an owner shouldn’t be able to sell their parking spot to somebody else, or agree to switch spots with somebody else, possibly for compensation.

This really depends on the specific condo corporation's declaration.

I’m really saying what I think the declarations should say. I understand that different corporations may have different provisions in their declarations (or in their bylaws or rules).
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The proposed five-storey parking structure at the Breithaupt Block has been cancelled after local residents took the developer to the LPAT. It is now restricted to at or below grade with a wide setback.

https://www.therecord.com/news-story/921...rs-appeal/
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Wow. So what does that mean for the entire project. Google can't be happy.
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(03-11-2019, 05:03 PM)Spokes Wrote: Wow.  So what does that mean for the entire project. Google can't be happy.

This is my concern, given that the developer settled however, I suspect they feel the project is still viable, if they felt it was going to not be viable, they'd have fought it to the last I would think.
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