Tag:building=garages
 building = garages
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| Description |
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A block of private garages each with a separate owner. 
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| Rendering in OSM Carto |
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| Group: buildings |
| Used on these elements |
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| See also |
| Status: de facto |
| Tools for this tag |
- For car storage buildings without walls, see
building=carport. - For smaller, single-user private garages, see
building=garage. - For public car parking, see
amenity=parking.
Description
The tag building=garages is used for buildings which are blocks of private garages, where each garage space has a different user/owner. In some countries commonly found close by to apartment blocks, providing protected parking spaces for residents.
building or parking
There can be uncertainty whether to map a row of individual garages as a building=garages or as amenity=parking + parking=garage_boxes.
These two approaches describe different aspects:
- the first one (
building=*) maps a physical structure without necessarily implying its use. Areas mapped this way will usually not be recognised as parking facilities by parking-related applications. This approach allows all attributes relevant to a physical building (construction_date=*,height=*,building:architecture=*, etc.). - the second one (
parking=*) maps an explicit parking use without describing the physical structure. It can be used in indoor mapping for basement garage boxes. This approach allows all attributes relevant to parking (fee=*,capacity=*, etc.).
Both representations may coexist (either two superimposed 
s—depending on whether the boxes occupy the whole building or only part of it—or an for the building and an 
for the parking).
In practice, since few parking=garage_boxes are publicly accessible, attributes such as fees or capacity are often of limited interest, and these facilities are more commonly mapped as building=garages than as amenity=parking + parking=garage_boxes.
However, facilities of this type are sometimes being offered to the general public for short-term or hourly rental, with access controlled through smartphone applications. In this case, usage of amenity=parking + parking=garage_boxes (or both) may be preferred.
See also
landuse=garagesparking=garage_boxes- Residential garage on Wikipedia.