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U.S. cities are getting rid of parking minimums Around the country, cities are
throwing out their own parking requirements, hoping to end up with less parking
– and more affordable housing, better transit, and walkable neighborhoods.


NATIONAL


FROM AUSTIN TO ANCHORAGE, U.S. CITIES OPT TO DITCH THEIR OFF-STREET PARKING
MINIMUMS

January 2, 20245:01 AM ET
Heard on All Things Considered

Laurel Wamsley

FROM AUSTIN TO ANCHORAGE, U.S. CITIES OPT TO DITCH THEIR OFF-STREET PARKING
MINIMUMS

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Enlarge this image

Austin, Texas, is the country's largest city to toss out its requirements for
off-street car parking. The city hopes removing the mandates will encourage
other modes of transportation and help housing affordability. Brandon Bell/Getty
Images hide caption

toggle caption
Brandon Bell/Getty Images


Austin, Texas, is the country's largest city to toss out its requirements for
off-street car parking. The city hopes removing the mandates will encourage
other modes of transportation and help housing affordability.

Brandon Bell/Getty Images

The city council in Austin, Texas recently proposed something that could seem
like political Kryptonite: getting rid of parking minimums.

Those are the rules that dictate how much off-street parking developers must
provide — as in, a certain number of spaces for every apartment and business.

Around the country, cities are throwing out their own parking requirements –
hoping to end up with less parking, more affordable housing, better transit, and
walkable neighborhoods.

Some Austinites were against tossing the rules.

"Austin has developed as a low density city without adequate mass transportation
system," said resident Malcolm Yeatts. "Austin citizens cannot give up their
cars. Eliminating adequate parking for residents will only increase the flight
of the middle class and businesses to the suburbs."

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CONSIDER THIS FROM NPR


HOW PARKING EXPLAINS EVERYTHING

But much more numerous were voices in support of eliminating the minimums and
the impact they've had on housing costs, congestion, and walkability.

"I think our country has used its land wastefully, like a drunk lottery winner
that's squandered their newfound wealth," said resident Tai Hovanky. "We
literally paved paradise and put up a parking lot."

The amendment sailed through the council — making Austin the biggest city in the
country to eliminate its parking mandates citywide.


DOZENS OF CITIES HAVE DITCHED PARKING MINIMUMS

But it's not just Austin. More than 50 other cities and towns have thrown out
their minimums, from Anchorage, Alaska, and San Jose, Calif., to Gainesville,
Fla.

"They're all just dead weight," says Tony Jordan, the president of the Parking
Reform Network, of parking minimums. One issue is just how arbitrary they can
be.

Take bowling alleys. Jordan says the number of required parking spots per
bowling lane could vary anywhere from two to five, in cities right next to each
other.

"What's the difference between a bowler in city A and city B? Nothing. It's just
these codes were put in ... very arbitrarily back 30 or 40 years ago and they're
very hard to change because anytime the city wants to change them, there's a
whole big hoopla," he says.

Enlarge this image

San Francisco is one of many U.S. cities that has thrown out its parking
minimums in recent years. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images


San Francisco is one of many U.S. cities that has thrown out its parking
minimums in recent years.

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Random as these rules can be, they have major consequences: Parking creates
sprawl and makes neighborhoods less walkable. Asphalt traps heat and creates
runoff. And parking minimums can add major costs to building new housing: a
single space in a parking structure can cost $50,000 or more.



One 2017 study found that including garage parking increased the rent of a
housing unit by about 17 percent.

AUTHOR INTERVIEWS


WHY THE U.S. BUILDS MORE THREE-CAR GARAGES THAN ONE-BEDROOM APARTMENTS

WHY THE U.S. BUILDS MORE THREE-CAR GARAGES THAN ONE-BEDROOM APARTMENTS

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 * Transcript

The real problem, says Jordan, is what doesn't get built: "The housing that
could have gone in that space or the housing that wasn't built because the
developer couldn't put enough parking. ... So we just lose housing in exchange
for having convenient places to store cars."


A MOVE TO LET THE MARKET DECIDE

Austin City Council member Zo Qadri was the lead sponsor on the resolution to
remove parking mandates there. He emphasizes that getting rid of parking
mandates isn't the same thing as getting rid of parking: "It simply lets the
market and individual property owners decide what levels of parking are
appropriate or needed."

Austin removed parking requirements for its downtown area a decade ago, "and the
market has still provided plenty of parking in the vast majority of the projects
since then," says Qadri.

A new survey from Pew Charitable Trusts found that 62% of Americans support
property owners and builders to make decisions about the number of off-street
parking spaces, instead of local governments.

Angela Greco, a 36-year-old musician and copywriter in Austin, is one of them.
She drives, but prefers to walk or take transit. She's not worried that doing
away with the old rules will make it too hard to find a place to park.

"I've lived in like cities where it's way more difficult, like New York and
L.A.," Greco says. "Parking just isn't that difficult in Austin to me to begin
with, even in really dense areas."

Enlarge this image

Many cities hope that ditching their parking requirements will make their
neighborhoods more amenable to biking and walking. People are seen biking and
walking along Park Avenue near Grand Central Station during the Summer Streets
initiative in New York City in August 2022. Ed Jones/AFP via Getty Images hide
caption

toggle caption
Ed Jones/AFP via Getty Images


Many cities hope that ditching their parking requirements will make their
neighborhoods more amenable to biking and walking. People are seen biking and
walking along Park Avenue near Grand Central Station during the Summer Streets
initiative in New York City in August 2022.

Ed Jones/AFP via Getty Images

She says the question of whether the city invests in transit and walkability, or
doubles down on cars, is decisive in whether she'll live in Austin long-term.

"Like if it doesn't seem like the public transit's going to get better, and if
it seems like the highway expansion is going to happen, then I'm probably going
to start looking for where else I can live. ... It's a major factor in my life
and my happiness. Like sometimes I'm driving on the road and I'll be in traffic
or something or even just on the highway, and it's such an ugly landscape,"
Greco says. "And then I'll think: this isn't really how I want to spend my adult
life."




TOO MUCH PARKING CAN HINDER EFFECTIVE TRANSIT

What about the idea that cities without good transit can't cut back on parking?

Jonathan Levine, a professor of urban and regional planning at the University of
Michigan who studies transportation policy reform, says cities' parking minimums
can make good transit nearly impossible to develop.

"An area that has a lot of parking is transit-hostile territory," he says.

He explains why: When people take transit, they complete their journey by
walking to their destination. A sea of parking at the destination makes that
walk longer, and it makes the physical environment less appealing to those on
foot.


BUSINESS


STREET FOOD: CITIES TURN PARKING SPACES INTO DINING SPOTS AND NO ONE SEEMS TO
MIND

"Who wants to walk by a bunch of parking lots to get to your destination?"
Levine notes.

And having tons of parking encourages driving. "If you have parking everywhere
that you're going, that parking essentially is calling to the drivers, drive
here! Park here! ... So if you keep on designing those areas by governmental
mandate, you're creating areas that transit can't serve effectively," says
Levine.

Many more U.S. cities – including New York City, Milwaukee, and Dallas — are
exploring getting rid of their parking minimums too. Duluth, Minn., lifted its
parking mandates in December.

Levine says getting rid of these rules is good news for cities.

"It's a huge drag on housing affordability. And it's a huge impediment for
cities fulfilling their destiny, which is enabling human interaction. Because
what parking does is it separates land uses, separates people. It makes cities
have a much more sprawling physical profile than they otherwise would have."

 * land use
 * urban planning
 * parking
 * Austin, Texas

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