Eliminating Parking Requirements
Eliminating Parking Requirements
Eliminating Parking Requirements
ISSUE NUMBER 6
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Eliminating Parking Minimums
By Ben LeRoy
Whether drawn from the quasi-scientific those not trained as urban planners. Resi- valuable land that could otherwise be used
findings of the Institute of Transportation En- dents and business owners alike have legiti- for productive buildings, while structured
gineers Parking Generation report or simply mate concerns about ever-increasing conges- parking costs average nearly $19,000 per
borrowed whole cloth from other cities zon- tion levels. Accordingly, a discussion of how space (Cudney 2016). With parking require-
ing codes, minimum parking requirements to achieve parking reform would be lacking ments elevating parking supplies beyond
continued to grow more onerous and complex. if it did not include a summary of the top what the market would normally produce,
Communities across the nation watched as reasons why parking reform is a worthwhile parkers often do not directly cover the cost of
formerly walkable neighborhoods were hol- goal. Although parking requirements are their own parking. Instead, the cost of parking
lowed out by parking. Even as planners crafted well-intentioned, they raise housing prices, is tucked into rent, hiding the true allocation
complete streets policies and rejiggered tax induce automobile traffic, and degrade the of the burden. Non-parkers often end up sub-
incentives for infill redevelopment, minimum built environment. sidizing parkers, producing a more expensive
parking requirements were largely ignored, and less fair result than allowing developers
taken on faith as a necessity for any well- Increased Housing Prices to build only as much parking as parkers are
planned city. Because Americans often park for free, they willing to pay for.
But many planners have woken up. A could be forgiven for thinking that parking
wealth of data-oriented researchfrom Park- is free to build and maintain. Unfortunately, Induced Automobile Traffic
ing Reform Made Easy by Richard Willson, nothing could be further from the truth. It Intended to mitigate congestion, minimum
faicp, to the work of Chuck Marohn, aicps turns out that parkingand more specifically, parking requirements have unfortunately pro-
Strong Towns organization, to the seminal The parking produced as a result of minimum duced the opposite effect. By hiding the true
High Cost of Free Parking by Donald Shoup, parking requirementsis a significant con- cost of automobile ownership and spreading
faicphas produced a growing consensus tributor to unaffordable housing. out destinations, minimum parking require-
within the planning profession that the tra- The construction of parking carries sub- ments create the very traffic burden they were
ditional approach to requiring automobile stantial costs. Surface parking consumes created to contain. A recent analysis by the
parking produces more harm than good. In
response, cities and counties have begun
chipping away at their parking requirements
with a variety of techniques, offering urban-
minded developers the opportunity to reduce
their parking burden through shared parking,
payments in lieu of parking, and smarter man-
agement of the public parking supply.
While these incremental steps have gen-
erally proven popular with developers, rela-
tively few communities have taken the bolder
step of eliminating parking requirements in
part or in full. The following sections lay out
the case for parking reform, profile recent
reform efforts in three cities, and present a
Ben LeRoy
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Tim Kirkby
use? Depending on the community, appeal-
ing to housing affordability can be a power-
ful argument.
Two projects, one profit margin: A developer expects the same return from
either building, but the one granted parking flexibility presents a much Substitute Local Examples for National
more welcoming face to the street. Studies
The field of parking policy research has pro-
duced extensive data about nearly every as-
Employ Scenarios and Alternatives parking requirements, although care must be pect of parking, from vacancy rates to supply/
Parking requirements have been the law of taken to avoid stirring up legitimate concerns demand models to land consumption. Unfor-
the land for so long that many people have that parking reform is simply a giveaway of the tunately, these studies may be of limited use
trouble envisioning how a newly constructed citys regulatory power to enhance the private in front of elected officials disinclined to look
building with little or no parking might func- sectors bottom line. Asking developers to to national trends for local decisions. Instead,
tion in their city. The local development com- compare required and flexible parking generate your own local data and examples
munity can show the impact of parking re- alternatives that project the same profit mar- to create a compelling narrative that parking
quirements on both the design and finances gin can mitigate these concerns. reform is a unique solution for your unique
of a proposed project. citys unique problems.
In Champaign, architect Tim Kirkby, aicp, Put the Focus on Residents, Not Drivers In Fayetteville, planners could point to
demonstrated to the plan commission how Many parking reform efforts are stalled by buildings in otherwise busy commercial dis-
one of his projects would change if parking neighboring residents and businesses sound- tricts that were being left vacant due to exces-
requirements were eliminated (Champaign ing the alarm about parking congestion. Even sive parking requirements. In Buffalo, staff
2015). Kirkby presented two alternatives side if these concerns are overblown (as they are successfully argued that residential parking
by side. While both alternatives projected an in many cases), parking congestion proves requirements were excessive in a community
expected return of 7.5 percent, their form and to be a difficult ground on which to do battle. where 30 percent of households did not own a
finances differed dramatically. The required Instead, consider shifting the conversation to single car. In Champaign, questionnaires sent
parking alternative was two stories taller the positive impact that parking reform has on to landlords revealed that most apartment
than the flexible parking alternative, and the wallets of residents. buildings had parking occupancy rates of only
was largely lifted up on stilts to accommodate As discussed above, overly burdensome 60 to 80 percent, even at reduced rental rates.
ground-floor parking. In contrast, the flexible parking requirements raise the cost of con- These findings mirrored numbers from the
parking alternative had one fewer curb cut struction and building maintenance. These citys own public parking permits in the area,
and presented ground-level dwelling units fac- costs are tucked into the rent and purchase which had cut rates in an attempt to preserve
ing the street. Perhaps more compelling was price of building, needlessly raising the price the 70 percent occupancy rate. In all these
the financial comparison of the two buildings. on every activity conducted within those cases, the local story told the tale of why park-
The cost of building required parking was buildings. Invite concerned neighbors and ing reform was important.
projected to increase rents by approximately elected officials to speculate on what it could Remember, too, that the story does not
33 percent! This real-life example of a building mean for the city coffers if residents, no longer end upon the successful adoption of new
that would be made both more attractive and tied up by unnecessary parking costs, found parking regulations. As the built environment
more affordable was very compelling evidence themselves with a greater disposable income. changes over the years, consider tracking
of the wisdom of eliminating parking require- A common rejoinder to this argument building permits to see how much parking
ments in the University District. raises the specter that developers will simply developers are providing. In Champaign, staff
The development community is already keep rents the same and pocket the cost sav- projected that most future buildings would
a natural ally of any planner seeking to ease ings as extra profit. Fortunately, a couple of likely provide parking at 50 to 75 percent of
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