Five new areas to be ‘car-lite’ precincts, fewer parking lots with new standards for private developments

SINGAPORE — Five new areas will be gazetted for development as “car-lite” precincts, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) said on Friday (Nov 9) as it announced new standards for property developers to meet when making parking provisions.

The five car-lite areas will be Marina South, Kampong Bugis, Woodlands North, Bayshore and Jurong Lake District.

The authorities doing the planning will provide added support for public transport and alternative travel options in the precincts. Parking provisions for the developments in these areas will be determined by the LTA on a case-by-case basis.

Separately, from February next year, new parking provision standards will be introduced to replace the existing Car Parking Standards and Range-based Car Parking Standards.

The new standards — called Range-based Parking Provision Standards — will specify the range of car-parking provisions that private developers are allowed to provide. The range will vary according to location zones and land uses.

The new standards will generally mean fewer parking lots, especially in areas well-served by public transport such as the Central Business District and places within 400m of an MRT station.

Private developers in these areas will be allowed to reduce parking provisions by up to half the number for office, retail, food and beverage, hotel, non-residential white sites and private condominium developments, as is now required under the Car Parking Standards.

The new standards are unlike the Car Parking Standards, which set only minimum requirements for developments.

They are also unlike the present Range-based Car Parking Standards, where LTA’s approval is needed to reduce parking provisions by up to 20 per cent below the minimum stipulated by the Car Parking Standards.

Under the new standards, developers will need to seek LTA’s approval only if they wish to deviate outside of the range. Charges may apply for provisions outside of the range.

Those planning to provide more lots than the range allows may have the extra lots counted into the total allowable gross floor area of the development.

LTA said this is to ensure that any deviation in parking provision “will not cause disamenities to the area”.

The new standards will also require 5 per cent of total car and motorcycle parking lots to be allocated to motorcycles. No such standard exists for now.

Providing an example to illustrate the new standards, the LTA said that:

• Under the current Car Parking Standards, a Zone 1 office (in the restricted zone in the city and Marina Bay, except gazetted car-lite precincts) with 100,000sqm gross floor area is required to provide at least 222 car-parking lots.

• The developer may apply to LTA to reduce the provision to 178 lots, under existing Range-based Car Parking Standards.

• Under the new standards, the developer has the flexibility to provide between 105 car and six motorcycle lots, and 169 car and 10 motorcycle lots without needing to seek LTA’s approval.

The LTA said that the changes will apply to new developments, redevelopments, selected additions and alterations involving increase in gross floor area or change in existing or approved car-park layout or provision, as well as change-of-use applications involving more than 160sqm of gross floor area that are received on or after Feb 1 next year.

The new parking standards take into account changes to the public transport system over the years, the authority added, such as the following:

• New rail lines and bus services have been added, and integrated transport hubs built.

• The network of sheltered walkways and cycling paths has expanded, improving connectivity and making public transport more convenient.

• The Government cut the vehicle growth rate for cars and motorcycles from 0.25 per cent a year to 0 per cent from February this year.