Does Your Parking Lot Meet Ontario Standards and Requirements?

Want to make sure that your parking lot is compliant with all standards and requirements in Ontario?

Unfortunately, meeting your city’s codes, regulations, standards, and requirements is not a given. Businesses that have hired inexperienced parking lot contractors may not even be aware that their pavement falls short of Ontario’s parking lot standards.

Whether you’re planning to install a new parking lot or you simply want to ensure that your current parking lot pavement is compliant with Ontario’s requirements, here are the parking lot standards you should know about!

1. Pavement Drainage

Because Ontario sees an abundance of rainfall and snowfall each year, you need to make sure that your parking lot pavement is equipped with proper drainage.

Proper grading and sloping will allow water to run off your surface naturally, and using permeable paving materials will allow a certain amount of stormwater to drain through the pavement.

2. Load Requirements

If you hope for your parking lot to not only hold up under the weight of heavy traffic but also save you from forking out thousands of dollars on repairs down the road, it’s critical that it is engineered for the kind of traffic you anticipate.

There are a handful of factors that will impact the load requirements for your pavement— including the type of pavement, the materials that are used, and the amount you traffic your business might expect to see.

3. Number of Spaces

Of course, the more parking spaces that are available in your lot, the more customers you will be able to serve. But it’s important to note that there are also parking lot requirements for different types of businesses in Ontario.

If you own a restaurant, for example, you are required to have a minimum of one parking space per 100 square feet of gross floor area (GFA). If you own a commercial daycare facility, on the other hand, you are required to have a minimum of one space per employee and one space per five children.

Comb through section article 30, section 9-1.3010 of Ontario’s parking standards for the specific requirements for your type of business.

4. Accessible Parking Spaces

In Ontario, it’s critical that your business follows the rules and regulations for parking lots through the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA).

This starts with ensuring that your parking lot is equipped with the minimum number of type A and type B accessible parking spaces per section 80.36 of the Design of Public Spaces Standard.

You will also need to make sure that there are clear, painted lines for all parking spaces throughout your lot.

5. Space Dimensions

Because parking space requirements may vary slightly from city to city, it’s important that you follow the requirements in your city.

If your business is located in Toronto, the minimum dimensions for each parking space are 5.6 metres long by 2.6 metres wide by 2 metres high.

Want to make sure that your business’s parking lot pavement is compliant with all of Ontario’s requirements? Be sure to contact the team at Empire Paving today for any commercial paving in Toronto and beyond!