Churches and other places of worship in Ottawa’s downtown core and near transit stations will be allowed to rent out parking spaces this fall as thousands of federal public servants head to the office four days a week. There have been concerns about a lack of parking spaces in the downtown core as public servants spend more time in the office and post-secondary students return to Ottawa for the fall term. The city is anticipating an additional 65,000 trips into the downtown core each week. Councillors on the planning and housing committee approved a Zoning Bylaw amendment on Wednesday to allow temporary parking at some city facilities and places of worship until the end of March. Under the plan, places of worship in the downtown core within 600 metres of O-Train stations and bus rapid transit will be allowed to rent out parking spaces on their property. “Principal use parking can be offered or leased to the general public at the operator’s direction,” staff said in the report. City staff noted many places of worship have “large parking lots to accommodate peak weekend attendance; these parking lots may be underutilized during weekday business hours.” The report says a business licence will not be required for places of worship to make parking spaces available to the public. Property owners have the right to decide whether to rent out parking spaces for commercial purposes. Six City of Ottawa facilities would also be allowed to offer parking spaces for rent this fall. The parking spaces at city facilities would be available through the city’s existing parking services system. Ottawa’s 48-point plan to keep commuters moving this fall included optimizing existing parking spaces by leveraging “underutilized parking lots at places of worship and specified City-owned facilities” in downtown Ottawa and near rapid transit stations. “They should have done this a long time ago” Doug Weir says finding a parking space in the downtown core hasn’t been a big issue for him. Given the time of day, he’s usually on the hunt for a spot, but it is costly. He says he’s on the lookout for a more permanent parking solution and is hoping to rent a spot monthly, but that search has proven challenging. “Most places are waitlisted. Some places have closed their waitlists altogether because there are too many people on them,” said Weir. “You can find some people who live in condo buildings who are renting spaces, but some of those are a bit sketchy.” Weir adds that he’s aware of parking scams in the city and has his guard up. The Ottawa Muslim Association has been renting out spots in its parking lot near Tunney’s Pasture for several years. Vice-president of the association Mohamed Ghadban says this move by the city to allow other places of worship to open up their parking lots is long overdue. “It gives the churches and the mosques a chance to earn some extra income the way things are with everything so tight with money,” he said. “They should have done this a long time ago. Waive the permits for places of worship for this because it helps to offset the costs of the building itself.” The plan will now go to city council for a final vote. City staff will report back to council in early 2027 on the effectiveness of the temporary measure. With files from CTV News Ottawa’s Austin Lee
