Staff Report to Council: Parking Bylaw Modernization and Downtown On-Street Parking Strategy

Staff Report to Council

DATE: Monday, December 15, 2025

DEPARTMENT: Planning

SUBJECT: Parking Bylaw Modernization and Downtown On-Street Parking Strategy

Executive Summary:

In September 2024, following a Request for Proposal process, Watt Consulting Group (Watt) was awarded the contract to complete the modernization of Part 4: Off-Street Parking and Bicycle Regulations of the City of Langford’s Zoning Bylaw No. 300. Three phases of work have been completed to date, including background review, data collection and analysis, and consultation.

Watt has also been engaged to prepare an on-street parking strategy for downtown Langford. The objectives of this strategy are to determine the existing on-street parking capacity of downtown Langford, to understand the overall parking conditions including occupancy, duration and turnover rates, and to recommend parking management tools and infrastructure improvements that can address current and future challenges.

Watt will be providing a comprehensive presentation of these projects at this meeting, including an update of work to date, an overview of initial findings for the on-street parking strategy, and their recommendations for the new off-street parking bylaw for Council’s consideration and direction.

Background:

Council included the following objective in their 2023-2027 Council Strategic Plan:

1i – Review the Zoning Bylaw Parking Requirements in the City Centre

The scope of this objective was expanded by resolution at the May 9, 2024, Council meeting to include a full review of Zoning Bylaw No. 300’s off-street parking requirements, bicycle parking requirements, and included further direction to explore options to include other Transportation Demand Management (TDM) measures.

In accordance with this direction, staff posted a Request for Proposals for professional consulting work to complete this project. The contract for this work and the related work to prepare an on-street parking strategy for downtown Langford was awarded to Watt Consulting Group.

Commentary:

Since awarding the contract, Watt Consulting has completed three phases of the parking bylaw modernization project, including background review, data collection and analysis, and public and key partner engagement. Watt will be providing a summary of the work to date as part of a presentation at this meeting, and the engagement summary is attached to this report.

Following their analysis of the results from these first three phases, Watt has developed nine key recommendations for the new bylaw, two of which have options for Council to consider. The recommendations as presented involve establishing more consistent off-street vehicle and loading standards that better meet demand, modernizing regulations for accessible parking and other specialty parking, updating bicycle parking requirements, and implementing bicycle parking design standards that reflect current and future trends.

More specifically, the recommendations include:

• Recommendation 1: Residential parking in the City Centre:

  • Option 1a: Expanding the removal of minimum residential parking ratios from the Transit-Oriented Area to the rest of the City Centre, and implementing minimum TDM requirements;
  • Option 1b: Expanding the removal of minimum residential parking ratios from the Transit-Oriented Area to areas of the City Centre that are located within 200m of future transit corridors, and implementing minimum TDM requirements;

  While Watt will outline these options during their presentation, it’s worth noting that a 200m buffer around the future transit corridors identified in the draft Transportation Master Plan encompasses most of the lands within the Downtown component of the City Centre OCP designation. The remaining City Centre lands fall within 400m of these corridors.

• Recommendation 2: Reducing multi-family residential parking ratios in all other OCP designations to better reflect demand, and allowing reductions in conjunction with optional TDM measures;

• Recommendation 3: Reducing residential visitor parking requirements to better reflect demand;

• Recommendation 4: Commercial parking in the City Centre:

  • Option 4a: Removing minimum parking ratios while maintaining accessible and loading requirements;
  • Option 4b: Removing minimum parking ratios within 200m of transit corridors in the City Centre while maintaining accessible and loading requirements;

• Recommendation 5: Consolidating and updating minimum commercial and industrial parking ratios in all other OCP designations;

• Recommendation 6: Modernizing bike parking standards (ratios and dimensions) and adding mobility scooter parking requirements;

• Recommendation 7: Revising loading parking ratios and design standards;

• Recommendation 8: Updating accessible parking ratios and design standards.

• Recommendation 9: Modernizing cash-in-lieu policies.

Watt will deliver a comprehensive presentation outlining these recommendations at this meeting. This will provide Council with an opportunity to review the recommendations in more detail and ask any clarifying questions. Following this discussion, Council may wish to provide direction to staff regarding next steps.

This presentation will also include an update of work completed to date on the on-street parking strategy, including data collection and analysis, public engagement findings, and initial recommendations for the strategy framework. This update is for information purposes only.

Financial Implications:

There are no known financial implications at this time.

Legal Implications:

There are no known legal implications at this time.

Strategic Plan Alignment:

• 1i – Review the Zoning Bylaw parking requirements in the City Centre.
• 1j – Review downtown public parking needs and related policies.