Here’s what’s driving the political push to relax London’s strict rules for driveways

A push to loosen London’s bylaw regulations over driveway dimensions for parking is being made at city hall. CTV’s Daryl Newcombe explains.

Modern living arrangements in London are moving away from the traditional definition of a single-family home.

As multi-generational families and rental units boost density within existing neighbourhoods—they’re also putting a strain on driveways.

“Where you used to have a family with two cars, now you have a family with three or four in a house that doesn’t have that amount of parking,” explained London Deputy Mayor Shawn Lewis.

The deputy mayor said neighbours become concerned about excessive street parking and unauthorized driveway expansions that can result from insufficient space on driveways.

He suggests the existing rules that limit the size and location of driveways no longer reflect the needs of many households.

“Whether it’s Additional Residential Units (ARUs), or whether it’s that multi-generational family living, one of the solutions that we can take as city council is to look at relaxing our regulations around driveway widths and around so-called front yard parking,” Lewis explained.

According to the city website, the width of a driveway is limited to 50 per cent of the lot frontage, or eight metres, whichever is less.

In addition, parking is not allowed on the front yard of a home, but a walkway or driveway extension running parallel to the driveway is permitted, up to 2 metre wide.

Lewis wants to see a reasonable relaxation of those rules.

“We’re talking about still having a limit on the maximum amount of your front yard that could be covered with parking,” he said. “We’re talking about maximum width; I think we would settle on two cars wide. I don’t think anybody is suggesting that a 3 or 4 car wide driveway is the solution to this.”

Driveway widenings would still require a permit from city hall.

“This has worked in the past. It can work now,” the deputy mayor added. “It’s not at a significant expense to the city. It’s changing a couple zoning by-laws and then letting people know how to apply for the permit.”

The deputy mayor intends to bring a motion to an upcoming committee meeting.