Thank you to everyone who shared feedback during the Downtown Parking Study. Your input helped shape the recommendations presented to the Community Infrastructure and Strategic Growth Committee on Sept. 9, which is a sub-committee of Council with citizen members.

The study looked at how parking is currently used downtown and explored ways to make it easier for people to access businesses and services, while also supporting a walkable, vibrant core.

What’s next?
City staff will now review the recommendations to decide what is realistic for Airdrie and when these actions could move forward. Further steps will be taken after the new City Council is elected.

What we heard and what we’re doing
The recommendations aim to make downtown more accessible, support walking and cycling and prepare for future needs like electric vehicles. Key actions include:

• Short term (zero to two years): Update the Land Use Bylaw to reduce parking requirements for certain developments and multifamily housing. Add rules for electric-vehicle (EV) and bike parking, encourage property owners to install EV chargers, improve transit connections, and make parking rules consistent across downtown. Planning for special events and budgeting for a future City-owned parking facility are also part of this phase.
• Mid-term (two to five years): Add and upgrade bike parking, build walking and cycling paths and create designated e-scooter parking. Review downtown-specific parking standards, study on-street parking options and install EV chargers on City-owned properties. A parking enforcement program and possibly a parking ambassador program will help manage demand.
• Long term (five to 10 years): Explore adding more parking, such as a new surface lot or parkade and create micromobility hubs to support alternative transportation options.
• Ongoing: Align this work with other City plans, support e-scooter programs and monitor parking needs after major projects.

Parking is essential for land use and transportation, helping achieve community goals like efficient land use, good urban design and economic prosperity.

Municipalities need to balance parking supply: too much is expensive and takes over streets, while too little drives customers away and causes overflow problems.

The City, together with a third-party contractor is conducting a two-part parking study: reviewing the Land Use Bylaw (LUB) parking standards and doing a detailed downtown parking study. The aim is to align Airdrie's parking needs with best practices, industry standards and market demands, supporting growth, downtown revitalization, affordable housing and economic prosperity.

The 2024 Parking Study is led by the City's Current Planning and Downtown Revitalization teams.

Overview of Public Engagement Activities:

To gain an understanding of stakeholder and community perspectives on parking in Downtown Airdrie, a series of engagement activities were conducted in early 2025. These initiatives aimed to gather insights from residents, business owners and other key stakeholders to inform the development of future parking strategies and recommendations for the Downtown area. Engagement activities included the following:

• Online Survey (650 responses)
• Online Interactive Mapping Tool (329 comments from 196 contributors)
• Virtual Stakeholder Interviews (19 interviews)

Summary of findings:

The findings from the online survey, interactive mapping tool and virtual stakeholder interviews highlight various parking issues in Downtown Airdrie. Participants in the engagement activities feel there is a shortage of parking for both staff and customers, particularly during peak hours, which negatively impacts business operations. Furthermore, the perceived lack of enforcement of parking regulations results in overflow parking and violations of time restrictions.

Overall, there was a strong opposition to paid parking, with concerns that it would be detrimental to local businesses and discourage people from visiting Downtown Airdrie. Stakeholders and those who have contributed to the survey and mapping tool emphasized the need for a dedicated parking structure in the downtown. These insights highlight the importance of addressing parking challenges to enhance convenience for those who visit Downtown Airdrie.