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Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA)
Circulars

Clarification on Conversion of Surplus Car Parking Spaces

Tags

Development Control

Urban Planning and Design

3 August 2020

This circular has been superseded by Circular No: URA/PB/2025/03-CUDG published on 7 February 2025.

Circular No : URA/PB/2020/06-CUDG, LTA/DBC/F20.033.005

Our Ref : DC/ADMIN/CIRCULAR/PB_20

CIRCULAR TO PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTES

Who Should Know:
Developers, Building Owners, Architects and Engineers

Effective Date:
3 August 2020 to 27 November 2024

  1. This circular seeks to clarify the allowable uses and the treatment of additional gross floor area (GFA) arising from the conversion of surplus car parking spaces1 in excess of the lower bound parking standard in designated areas under the CBD Incentive Scheme and island-wide.

CBD Incentive Scheme

  1. In March 2019, URA introduced a set of incentives to encourage the conversion of existing, older, office developments into mixed-use developments to help rejuvenate and reposition our CBD as a 24/7 mixed use district. The incentives are applicable to sites located within selected parts of:

  1. In line with the planning intention to encourage conversion of office developments to residential, hotel and other mixed uses within the CBD, only applications for conversion of existing surplus car parking spaces to non-office uses (see examples in Table 1) will be considered in the selected areas mentioned in paragraph 2.

  1. For the rest of the Central Area, conversion of surplus car parking spaces to similar non-office uses listed in Table 1 is also highly encouraged, in line with the planning intention to inject more live-in population in the city.

Table 1

Locality

Allowable Change-of-Use for Surplus Carparks

Areas where CBD Incentive Scheme applies

Only non-office uses will be allowed, subject to planning evaluation and other considerations such as traffic.
 
Examples of possible non-office uses:

  1. Residential

  2. Shops e.g. minimart, laundrette, hair salons, etc.

  3. Clinics

  4. Restaurants

  5. Indoor farms

  6. Gymnasium / Fitness centres

  7. Childcare centres

  8. Commercial schools

This list is not exhaustive. Allowable uses may vary from site to site and shall not be cited as a precedent for other sites.

Rest of Central Area

Non-office uses are highly encouraged.

Additional GFA

  1. Any additional GFA gained via the conversion of surplus car parking spaces shall not be taken into consideration in determining the maximum permissible intensity that may be allowed when the site redevelops. This will apply to new development proposals2 for conversion of surplus3 car parking spaces island-wide.

Surplus Car Parking Spaces

  1. Where surplus car parking spaces were allowed by LTA through a waiver application to exceed the upper bound of the Range-based Parking Provision Standards (RPPS) after 1 Feb 2019, the development will not be allowed to convert any of the surplus car parking spaces to other uses.

  1. I would appreciate it if you could convey the contents of this circular to the relevant members of your organisations. Further enquiries on this circular can be made to:

Thank You.

CHOU MEI (MS)
GROUP DIRECTOR (CONSERVATION & URBAN DESIGN)
for CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
URBAN REDEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY

LINA LIM (MS)
GROUP DIRECTOR (POLICY & PLANNING)
for CHIEF EXECUTIVE
LAND TRANSPORT AUTHORITY


1See the following circulars for reference:

a. URA/LTA's joint circulars on Conversion of Surplus Car Parking Spaces (Circular No: URA/PB/2016/06-DCG dated 15 April 2016 and Circular No: URA/PB/2018/09-DCG dated 9 Nov 2018); and

b. URA's Circular on Rejuvenation Incentives for Strategic Areas: Central Business District (CBD) Incentive Scheme (Circular No: URA/PB/2019/04-CUDG) dated 27 March 2019.

2This will not apply to development applications which have already been granted Written Permission before 3 Aug 2020.

3Surplus car parking spaces are created when the car parking spaces provided within a development exceeds the minimum requirements under LTA’s prevailing car parking standards.

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