A developer in Toronto will soon build a 42-story condo tower with zero – zero – parking spaces for private cars. They received approval for the tower in September over the objections of city zoning staff who, following the regulations enacted into law by the city’s zoning code, demanded a massive parking garage be included in the project. The developer says smaller units without bundled parking sell better, and that providing a parking space would increase the cost of each condo unit by $20, 000.

This is a perfect example of how government regulation subsidizes and supports car use. If the normal city law requiring parking had been followed the developer would have been forced to build more expensive condo units, with unnaturally easy car access. It would have been an anti-market double whammy, artificially decreasing the supply of needed affordable housing while increasing the number of people driving (since people are more likely to drive if you contrive to make it easier to do so). And of course, since those same laws are in effect all over the city, the result compounds itself across the metropolis and results in an entire city with more parking and more expensive condos than the market wants. Since virtually every city in Canada and the United States has such laws, our entire civilization is over-housed and over-parked.

Good on Toronto for taking a step to change things.