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I thought it was 10.

I definitely have relied on the 10 minute time before. I used to regularly drop 5 cents in the meter to buy "11 minutes" to go grab a coffee.
 
www.ctvnews.ca

Downtown Ottawa parkade closed after top floor collapses, 50 vehicles trapped

A downtown Ottawa parking garage remains closed after a section of the top level collapsed early Wednesday morning, sending piles of snow and concrete down three levels to the ground and damaging several vehicles.
www.ctvnews.ca www.ctvnews.ca
Ottawa parking garage collapse at 4:45 am. A parking user hero noticed the garage beam failure 12 hours earlier and the garage was closed by authorities shortly thereafter.

Pictures from above link
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I guess this is why they are fixing the older west end section of the Esplanade and Church Green P lot. Another reason might be due to the large residential building above it stays put. The City of Toronto doesn’t plow or salt the east end top section which is newer than the west portion. I’m not sure if this is due to the risk or demand.
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Edit added GreenP on Hayden SE of Yonge and Bloor.

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From today.
Dundas and Central Ave. Looks like they pile their snow. Parking demand I guess.
Google says packed snow could be 25 lbs/ft3. Say a 8’x16’x6’ parking spot could be 19,000lbs vs a large car at 5,000 lbs.
The Ottawa lot was 38 years old, precast lift and place.

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Two notable items in this TPA report:
"The City of Toronto has developed a strategic framework for managing public parking, both on-street and in parking lots. TPA has worked closely with the Transportation Services Division and other relevant stakeholders to provide input and guidance on the City’s ecosystem of parking programs and services. Consultation about the draft recommendations was completed in Q4 2024 and a final Strategy is planned to be brought forward to City Council in Q2 2025. Management will collaborate with Transportation Services to provide an update to the Board at the earliest opportunity."

"In 2023, TPA identified 26 properties under its operational management that were surplus to its needs. The list of sites includes underperforming car parks and properties that are vacant or currently used for non-parking purposes that cannot feasibly be developed into parking facilities. After canvassing all Division, Agency & Corporations (DACs), CreateTO is working to transfer the sites to the respective DACs to achieve city-building priorities, including the expansion of affordable housing, shelters and parks."
 
A report to next week's meeting of the TTC outlines a strategy in regards to Commuter Parking at Stations.


Said report generally recommends some modest increases in rates, at higher-use, lots, on weekdays.

On this portion of the report, my only quibble is that I think their new daily rate of $8 is light, and I would like it see it at $9

Also in the report is a list of under-utilized lots, some extraordinarily so.

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In the above, HONI refers to Hydro One, CF to Cadillac Fairview.

Locations of note:

Finch West, only 7.6% utilization! Who did their demand forecast?

In this location the lot is a blockage point for the Finch Hydro Corridor Trail.
Any reduction in lot size should be done in such a way as to provide for the missing link in question:

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Pioneer Village, only 14.4% utilization.... with 1,881 spaces of capacity!! That's 1,610 empty spaces every day.

Also

Finch Station: East Side - 51% utilization.

Finally, Don Mills, as in Fairview Mall. - 17.6% utilization.

Given that this is next to CF's proposed Fairview Mall intensification, and how much more optimal that could be were the current parkade over the station removed, and the potential to fix the terrible relationship between the station and the mall here as well.........this one should be on the urgently dispose of list.

Great site for @HousingNowTO as well.
 
Northern Light said:
Finch West, only 7.6% utilization! Who did their demand forecast?

In this location the lot is a blockage point for the Finch Hydro Corridor Trail.
Any reduction in lot size should be done in such a way as to provide for the missing link in question:
Click to expand...
I checked Google Earth's historical satellite imagery and...

...there wasn't a single one where the parking lot was full since its completion in 2017, with only the southernmost section being used in the images. Obviously, they are only snapshots, but this isn't even a RECENT trend. The lot reduction would likely remove the northern portion, which should allow for the FHC Trail to be extended.

At least Pioneer Village's parking is further afield and likely has lower usage because it's so close to Hwy 407 Station, which itself is "over" capacity according to the report (sidenote: Jeez Kipling has busy lots) and might "overflow" to Pioneer Village. Though overall, I'd assume that thanks to OneFare, there may be fewer people travelling by car to the TYSSE stations.

It would be nice to have yearly updates on utilization, to see what shifts are happening across the system because it seems like we get an update on policy every ~10 years, with only year-over-year data for 5 years for the only lots that will be shrunk. Also, regarding Finch West's lot, after scanning through the report, it seems they want to reduce the lot to 175 spots, which is halving the lot, but still with a paltry 23.4% utilization by 2041. Pioneer Village is a little better, with only 688 spots and a projected 73.1% utilization.
 
I wonder whether more advertising should be done to promote use of some of these lots. The traffic is at stand-still on the Allen every day, and it surely is that case that some could be diverted to some of these commuter lots e.g. Pioneer Village.
 
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Olivia Chow says no parking price increase. Always standing up for the people who can afford to drive to the subway rather than the ones taking the bus.

nowtoronto.com

Mayor Chow shuts down plan to hike parking fees at TTC lots- NOW Toronto

The recommendations included increasing daily parking rates at nine “well-utilized” TTC commuter parking lots to $8/day....
nowtoronto.com nowtoronto.com
 

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Request to explore TPA taking over parking enforcement from TPS heading to Infrastructure and Environment Committee next week

IE22.2 - A Strategic Parking Framework for the City of Toronto

The General Manager, Transportation Services, recommends that:

1. City Council approve the Strategic Parking Framework discussed in this report from the General Manager, Transportation Services, dated May 28, 2025, and summarized in Attachment 1 appended to this report.

2. City Council request the Board of Directors of Toronto Parking Authority to request the President, Toronto Parking Authority to work with Toronto Police Service, to undertake a feasibility review and report back in 2026 on a plan to transfer the management of certain on-street parking enforcement programs from the Toronto Police Service’s Parking Enforcement operations to the Toronto Parking Authority.
 
HousingNowTO said:
(June 16, 2025) Letter from David Roberts, University of Toronto (EX.New)
https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2025/ex/comm/communicationfile-192571.pdf
Click to expand...

Your number 2 site, 3885 Yonge has an obvious drawback or 2.

Notably, its inside the regulatory floodplain.

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Large parkland on the south and west presents potential shadowing issues as well, on top of that the subway tunnel is adjacent to this site (partially under).

***

There are some other problematic choices/rankings.

I don't see how a hirise that would get approved, would happen on Lippincott.
You have to allow for widening the laneway to the north, and a buffer to the SFH to the south, and getting a big slab approved on a E-W axis is not at all likely.

That is also the site of a hugely popular Farmer's Market.

***

I won't go through all the rest now, but the rankings and site analysis are unfortunately problematic. I agree with ditching the surface parking in every case, and am happy to support development on most.

But in terms of what form of development and the challenges that will be encountered. I think the rankings are a big issue and will see capital (volunteer) spent on the wrong sites.
 
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Green P lot on Church and The Esplanade

They are lifting some backup power to a new location on the roof of the parking lot. I’m assuming this is peak shaving power for the new electrical vehicle chargers. They had an existing ground floor generator so I’m assuming this unit is larger.
I’m not sure if this is gas, oil or a battery pack. No top vents. I’ll investigate later.

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Blue Star Power from Minnesota
 
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The already weak Parking Strategy was further watered down at Council.

Anyone car to guess you led the charge?

If you said 'fake progressive' Councillor Fletcher..............you'd be right:

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