Life of Guangzhou - Guangzhou to Have 100,000 More Parking Spaces Downtown in 3 Years

The citywide parking development index will be upgraded considerably in Guangzhou, a parking-plagued city in South China. The index aims to provide some 100,000 more spaces in downtown Guangzhou within three years, according to a Letter of Suggestion, the Municipal Government released online yesterday (September 13).

A public parking lot in Guangzhou. [Guangzhou Daily]

Three major changes are found in the official plan, compared with the present one as follows:

1. Indexes for residential and business buildings will both increase. At most, residential parking spaces will be doubled. Every two households will have one space each at least on average. This is to combat current auto congestion problems around residences .

2. Administration regions for parking will be streamlined from four to two, according to different population density;

3. Calculations for parking requirements will be based on building areas, instead of the present number of households, hospitalization beds, hotel rooms or students.

Special spaces for the handicapped will be set up in all the public parking lots of over 50 spaces.

Some professionals have stated that, the plan is mainly for new constructions. Parking in the old town with restricted places will have to resort to roadside and public facilities in addition to the parking lots of residential and business buildings.

The Letter of Suggestion is released on the official website of the Guangzhou Municipal Bureau of City Planning, www.upo.gov.cn (in Chinese), for 20 days from yesterday.

Public advice is welcome by:

1. E-mailing to gzghgs@126.com;

2. Writing a letter to the Urban and Rural Planning Division of the Guangzhou Municipal Bureau of City Planning (add: 80, Jinxing Lu, Guangzhou GD 510030).

Two suggested administration regions for parking in Guangzhou. [Guangzhou Daily]

(By Ronald Li and Alan Devey)