Surrey council gave final approval with no debate Monday to a zoning amendment bylaw to revise bicycle parking requirements for multifamily developments with the aim to "improve efficiencies and increase housing affordability."
Tim Yzerman, chairman of HUB Cycling's Surrey/White Rock Committee, was the lone speaker at Monday's public hearing.
"Surrey could help with the cost of living by reducing the need to own a vehicle as residents could save $16,000 a year by not owning a vehicle," he told council. "We urge mayor and council to reconsider this motion, instead ask for a vision that looks at how it become easier to get around on a bicycle.
"So mayor and council, please build a network of safe and protected cycling infrastructure which will allow people to reduce the need to drive and reduce the need to own a personal vehicle space and reduce the need to have a very expensive $75,000-plus parking stall and maybe be able to use a shared vehicle instead or some other means of transportation," Yzerman said.
Council on April 28 supported a corporate report from Neuman and Ron Gill, Surrey's general manager of planning and development, related to off-street parking for bicycle parking spaces. It concerned a "bike utilization survey" for underground parking and zoning bylaw amendments for council's consideration.
They note that the City of Surrey's current off-street bicycle parking space requirements "are generally consistent with other municipalities. Notwithstanding, the Task Force identified the potential for continuous improvement to amend the Zoning Bylaw to be more flexible and in line with resident demands."
According to the report, city staff conducted on-site surveys of 13 multi-family tower sites – together containing 5,579 dwellings – in the city centre in March and found that "actual bicycle parking utilization rates were significantly lower than the City’s prescribed requirements of 1.2 bicycle spaces per dwelling unit, leading to empty storage rooms which could be used for alternate applications" such as vehicle parking, waste collection and storage space for residents. "The average utilization rate was 0.1 bicycles per dwelling unit (including unoccupied units) and a maximum utilization rate of 0.27 bicycles per dwelling unit," staff learned.
Gill and Neuman explained this has revealed Surrey’s bicycle parking requirements "for developments along rapid transit corridors are comparable to the region, yet remain significantly underutilized."
Therefore, city staff recommend the bylaw be revised to a minimum of 0.4 spaces per dwelling unit.
Councillor Pardeep Kooner said on April 28 the utilization rate compared to what city hall was requiring is "kind of shocking so I really appreciate the initiative to bring this forward and to be more practical in how we look at development."
Locke at that meeting asked how much a bicycle parking spot would cost, to which Neuman replied "I would guess a parking spot for a vehicle, underground parkade, depending on how many levels, roughly maybe $70,000, $75,000, so you might get three or four bikes in that same space so somewhere in the order of $17,000, $20,000 would be my guess, for a bike space."
