An unexpected battleground looms in city council’s push to spur more highrise development in downtown London: parking lots.

Amid a building boom during which nine residential towers could be constructed, some politicians have quietly keyed in on a little-known bylaw that prohibits commercial surface parking lots in the core.

The lots, which dot downtown and often take up prime land, are technically not allowed under city zoning rules — but so-called “temporary use zoning” allows the landowners to operate the lucrative commercial lots and defer any real development.

For years, the owners have expected an existing exemption that lasts three years to be continued with a city council rubber-stamp.

But maybe not anymore.

Led by Coun. Tanya Park, city council may start yanking some of the temporary permits — thus cutting off the parking-lot revenue and potentially forcing the owners to sell the site, or build on it.

“These are just kind of clogs in the drain” of downtown redevelopment, Park said of the parking lots taking up prime land.

“(They’re) spectacular locations for infill.”

Ending the exemptions wouldn’t guarantee redevelopment necessarily, but it would, as Park puts it, “get rid of the incentive to be idle.”

A few details on downtown parking lot rules:

Commercial surface lots are not allowed — though that doesn’t apply to accessory parking lots, such as one adjacent to an office, or to parking garages.

Temporary use zoning permits last three years, and can be extended by city council as many times as the landowner and politicians want.

Past city councils haven’t had the political will to say no to extensions, nor has there been the kind of demand for downtown land London is seeing now.

Commercial surface parking was banned downtown to avoid the demolition of buildings to make way for lucrative parking pads.

The question now — one to which there isn’t yet a clear answer — is how many such lots are downtown, and how many need their exemption extended.

City documents indicate at least one, located at 299 King St., could be up for renewal this fall.

Park, for one, believes the time is now for city council to axe some lots.

Such a move is also written into the recently approved downtown master plan that calls for “discontinuing the temporary-use zoning” on parking lots.

“I think at this point we’re seeing a lot of confidence in the residential market and also in the development community in the downtown,” she said.

“We’ve got these parcels of land (in the heart of the core) where there’s no action being taken.”

Shmuel Farhi, downtown London’s biggest landowner, declined an interview request Wednesday.

Patrick.maloney@sunmedia.ca

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