District of Squamish is planning to charge developers more for commercial parking stalls. District plans to increase the commercial parking rate for Payment in Lieu of Off-street Parking Spaces from from $25,000 to $30,000.
In 2018, district adopted the Payment in Lieu bylaw, setting the price for a commercial parking space at $15,000. That was increased to $25,000 per stall in July 2021.
District’s Downtown Parkade Study identified the possibility of increasing the cost to $65,000 per stall to fund a future parkade. However, according to a staff report, recent discussions at the district have made it clear that the number would be prohibitive for downtown development.
If the cash-in-lieu option does not work financially, the possible options for developers are to cap commercial space or to create multiple levels of parking which runs counter to the directions district would like to see downtown.
The $30,000 number will increase the available revenue and keep the option of paying cash in lieu attractive to developers, the report says.
While the proposed rate will not fund 100% of the cost of constructing a parkade, it is likely to contribute at least 50% of cost with the remainder coming from other funding sources.
