Citywide Elimination of Parking Minimums on Track in Edmonton

"For city-builders across North America, all eyes will be on Edmonton, Alberta, Canada this summer as they look to eliminate off-street parking minimums city-wide, making Edmonton the first major Canadian municipality to do so," according to an article by Ashley Salvador. 

According to Salvador, founder of the Canada Backyard Housing Association, Edmonton might not seem like the first candidate for such a sweeping, progressive reform of land use regulations, but the city is young and entrepreneurial, and its political leadership can see the sense in parking reform. Salvador also credits the progress of the idea to planners in the city:

A talented team of city planners has been slowly chipping away at parking minimums for years, beginning with reductions to minimum requirements. The opportunity to remove minimums city-wide comes after extensive working on establishing a shared vision for a more sustainable, compact, and healthy city.

As for specifics, Salvador notes the novelty in the city considering a citywide reversal of parking minimums, rather than a zoned approach that would reform parking regulations only in a few parts of the city. 

Salvador's article works to build the case for parking reform, treading in the footsteps of Donald Shoup, and to announce Edmonton's leadership role to a larger audience of urbanists and planners. For news coverage of the city of Edmonton's progress in the effort so far, see also an article by Dustin Cook from January 2020.