Parking Reform is Constructing Momentum
By Ian Thomas
A State Senator, an area Planning Commissioner, and a nationwide advocacy chief all agree on no less than two factors – parking mandates are very dangerous to communities and the parking reform motion is gathering momentum.
America Walks’ June 5 webinar, “Folks Over Parking: Advancing Inexpensive Housing and Walkability by means of Parking Reform,” featured Minnesota State Senator Omar Fateh, writer of a invoice to ban communities throughout the state from enacting minimal parking necessities. Though the “Minnesota Folks Over Parking Act” didn’t turn into regulation within the 2024 legislative session, Sen. Fateh confirmed that he obtained robust assist from members on either side of the aisle and plans to introduce his proposal once more subsequent yr.
As defined by Chris Meyer, Chair of the Minneapolis Planning Fee, parking minimums are constructed into the zoning code of just about each municipality in america. Designed within the Nineteen Fifties to deal with a priority about shortages, these inflexible guidelines require actual property builders to incorporate particular numbers of parking areas of their plans – an condo advanced should have two areas per unit, a restaurant wants one for each 100 sq. ft of inner house, and so forth. Within the early 2010s, Chris realized that these mandates had been inflicting suburban sprawl and automotive dependence, and determined to do one thing about it.
To begin with, he purchased a duplicate of Donald Shoup’s “The Excessive Value of Free Parking” for each member of the Minneapolis Metropolis Council (an act of generosity he repeated this yr with the State Legislature, see photograph). Then, he lobbied for a repeal of minimal parking necessities, so town would turn into extra walkable, scale back its carbon footprint, and construct extra inexpensive housing. Because of this, Minneapolis eliminated the necessities for developments near transit stations in 2015 and eradicated them citywide in 2021.
Tony Jordan, President of the Parking Reform Community, was the third webinar visitor. His group supplies schooling on the dangerous results of parking mandates and advocates for ending them. Throughout the webinar, Tony mentioned the gathering momentum for parking reform throughout the nation. Within the 9 years since Minneapolis’ pioneering transfer to permit house owners of land close to transit to decide on how a lot parking they wanted, a whole bunch of cities have enacted comparable partial reforms and dozens have eradicated mandates citywide. Tony additionally gave an outline of the Parking Reform Community’s sources and suggested native advocates to interact public officers in discussions in regards to the excessive value and adverse affect of present parking insurance policies.
The webinar was co-facilitated by America Walks Board Member Arlis Reynolds and State and Native Program Director Ian Thomas. Arlis, who can also be a Metropolis Council Member in Costa Mesa, CA, requested the panelists whether or not parking reform is a well-liked difficulty for native candidates working for election. The final consensus was that it may be a profitable progressive place so long as the small print are defined clearly and myths are dismissed. For instance, eradicating authorities mandates shouldn’t be the identical factor as prohibiting parking– builders can nonetheless construct as many areas as they need. In response to Ian’s query in regards to the alignment of political events for or in opposition to parking reform, Omar, Chris, and Tony all agreed that there’s loads of bipartisan assist with environment-focused liberals and small-government conservatives opposing parking mandates.
To wrap up the webinar, every panelist gave their 30-second “elevator speech” in assist of parking reform.
Try the total recording of the webinar: