Credit: Omer Rana on Unsplash
Last week the California Assembly passed a bill that could have a big impact on urban development there and across the country if it ends up becoming law. The gist is short enough to quote here:“A local government shall not impose a minimum automobile parking requirement, or enforce a minimum automobile parking requirement, on residential, commercial, or other development if the parcel is located within one-half mile walking distance of public transit.”Every major US city imposes some form of minimum parking requirements for new housing developments. On paper, the logic is sound. Whoever moves in needs a place to park their car. In practice, parking requirements raise the cost to construct new housing, discourage small-scale apartment construction, increase rents (by an average of 17%!), and make neighborhoods less pedestrian-friendly.
Ok, but that doesn’t answer the main question here. If we get rid of these requirements, where will people park? We have a solution for that. It’s called a market and it works like this: If you want a space to park your car, you pay for a parking space. If you don’t have a car, you don’t pay for a parking space. Importantly, if you don’t own a car, you are not forced to pay for a parking space you don't want. Read more on the economical case against parking requirements here.
Once parking is considered a commodity (rather than a right), it creates all sorts of opportunity for imagination. The amount of value tied up by street level parking in urban centers is astronomical. We’ll turn it over to urbanist TikTok to explain:
All it takes is a little imagination. Well, that and a complete overhaul of our urban land use and zoning policies.
Credit: TxDOT
Since all our die-hard pro-car readers are already long gone... The Congress For New Urbanism released their updated Freeways With Futures 2021 report, detailing 15 urban freeway systems that ought to be torn down and redeveloped as livable urban space. It may be a pipe dream, but man those renderings look incredible.
Credit: #blvdtampa
Next Friday, June 18 we're having a special event at Florida Mining Gallery as part of our exhibition with McKenna Anderson, 'mini golf of sensual sports.' It involves audience participation. Plus, food and drinks!
Come say hi!
When you try to cram 3,000 words on minimum parking requirements and zoning laws in a marketing email.