City should 'unlock' parking revenue for transit, report says

Less parking,more transit.

That's the message in a report released Thursdayby the Toronto Region Board of Trade that says the city's parking authority should consider selling off some of its parking lotsas a way to fund transit.

The report, titled Unlocking Value: A Strategy to Finance Transit Expansion with Existing City Assets & Revenue, says parking lots and other city assets could generate up to $1 billion to go towardToronto's pressing transit needs.

The report's recommendations include:

• Putting a stop to the city-owned Toronto Parking Authority's current practice of diverting 25 per cent of its revenue to future parking expansion. Instead, the report says more of that money should go toward developing transit. The Board of Trade estimates this will generate $30.5 million a year.
  
• Selling air rights of some city-owned surface-level parking lots to developers so they can add commercial or residential spaces on top of the lots and put the parking underground.
  
• Looking at raising the city's debt ceiling by factoring in all sources of city revenue, not just property tax.

Board of Trade president Jan De Silva told CBC Radio's Metro Morning Thursday that the moves would be a better way to generate some much-needed transit money the report says as much as$1 billion fromexisting city assets.

'Time to start unlocking value'

"It's not going to fully solve the transit funding issue that we have but it starts to move us along a path that will get us there," De Silvasaid.

Regarding the sale of parking lots, De Silva insists she's not calling for a "fire sale" but a measure that will mandate that developers not reduce the amount of available parking spaces.

"Those parking spots could go underground so the city's not losing parking revenue," she said.

Metro Morning guest host Helen Mann asked if the recommendations aren't short-sighted, given the recent rise in land values.

"At some point we've got to get on with funding transit,' said De Silva. "It's time to start unlocking value."

On the debt ceiling issue, De Silva said city borrowing is currently capped at 15 per cent of property tax revenue. But she said that amount could be higher if other revenue sources are factored in.

"It's very much restricted the amount of debt we can issue to fund transit," she said. "And we believe there is tremendous room for us to increase that debt level. This will provide about a 50 per cent increase in the debt ceiling for the city.

De Silva said the report is intended to generate ideas for council as they try to tackle a multi-billion shortfall in transit funding.

"We're hoping these will provide some ideas for councillors to take action on."