Seen as wasted space, London has 29 acres of surface parking: Here are the 10 largest lots

Before she started working as the head of the Canadian Urban Institute, Mary Rowe was a Londoner who wondered why so much of the downtown core in her hometown was occupied by empty buildings and surface parking lots. 

"It doesn't take a land use planner or expert to drive or walk through London and see that you've got areas that are underutilized," said Rowe. "It's symptomatic that you've got a downtown that's not realizing its potential." 

The Canadian Urban Institute is a national charity devoted to improving the quality of urban life. It's an organization that has published studies that portray surface parking lots as an abhorrent waste of valuable downtown real estate. 

A London city staff report released last week took a hard look at London's stubbornly high commercial vacancy rate, and surface parking lots are clearly seen as part of the problem. 

In a fast-growing city that strives to bring more density to its downtown, London has 67 surface parking lots that collectively gobble up almost 30 acres of prime real estate in the core. 

A whole handful of city policies, from the London Plan to the 2017 parking strategy, deride surface lots as by-products of bad planning, something to be avoided because they don't stimulate economic growth and block development.

London's city lots: Who owns them? 

Using city data, CBC News complied a list of downtown London's 10 largest surface parking lots, and who owns them. You can see the list in a map at the top of this page.

Here are some highlights: 

The largest surface lot in London's core is a 4.3 acre parcel at 301 York St., directly across the street from RBC Place. It's also for sale for $41 million as CBC News reported last year. It's owned by Bradel Properties, which also owns the fourth largest surface lot in London (355 King St., 1.25 acres). 

The second largest lot is at the northwest corner of King and Clarence streets, although it's official address is 195 Dundas St. There's a 25-storey residential tower being built on the site by Ayerswood Development Corp., and two more are planned to be built where the parking is located now. 

Farhi Holdings Corp. owns four of London's largest 10 surface lots, including 195 and 196 York St. One of the lots is across the street from the Via Rail station, the other lot is right beside it. 

Farhi also owns 126 York St. and 120 York St. at the corner of Talbot. The latter property had a two-storey commercial building on site but it was demolished and turned into a surface lot. Approving the demolition caused some controversy with some councillors reluctant to approve the demolition without a development application in place. 

The 10th largest surface lot in the core is located at 299 King St., next to RBC Place. It's owned by the City of London.

Rowe said London needs to look at what Calgary is doing with office conversions and said the high cost barrier can be overcome by working with the landowners. 

And while Rowe sees the surface lots as an impediment to a thriving downtown, she also says they represent the potential for a better future. 

"The great thing for London to think about is the potential of those areas," she said. "A lot of cities are so built up they don't have that flexibility, whereas you do."

The report on reducing downtown vacancy is up for discussion by members of city council at this afternoon's strategic priorities and policy committee meeting.