There Is NO Free Parking
More local governments are embracing smart growth, seeking to reenergize downtowns, and direct development to areas where people have “front door” choices to walk, bike, take transit or drive. But too often, especially in Southern California, the political will to follow a more urban and pedestrian vision seems to wither in the face of demands for more parking by neighbors and merchants. For those of us who have grown up in suburbia, these demands sound reasonable and it’s hard for us to imagine there is such a thing as too much parking. But there is.
So, what is the balance between parking and livable communities? To explore that question Livable Places organized a workshop, entitled “There Is No Free Parking” at the Southern California Association of Non-Profit Housing 2006 annual conference held in Los Angeles.
At the workshop, Architect Angela Brooks, Pugh+Scarpa Architecture, explored the typical uses of garages in Southern California – messy storage, workshops, and homes for tens of thousands of low-income people, but not many cars. Brooks relayed a personal story about her effort to build a carport rather than a garage at her home in a walkable neighborhood in Los Angeles. Most distressing were her examples of affordable housing developments in urban neighborhoods that were required to have excessive parking at a great cost - $30,000 - $120,000/space.
Patrick Siegman, Nelson\Nygaard Consulting Associates, challenged us to consider a world without mandated parking minimums and why we might want to go there. Siegman began with the intriguing example of the Gaia Building in downtown Berkeley with 91 apartments, a theater, café and office space with only 42 parking spaces—20 of which are in use. Siegman outlined a four-step guide: set goals; assess the status quo; offer alternatives; and build a consensus. Establishing a wider vision for the neighborhood is critical before setting parking goals, especially if the vision is something other than suburban in nature.
Practical steps for assessing a community’s readiness to consider moving from suburban-style high parking minimums were given by the third presenter Richard Willson, Ph.D. AICP, Professor and Chair Department of Urban and Regional Planning California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. Willson identified two problems with high minimum parking requirements: 1) they increase the cost of housing by adding to construction costs, encouraging luxury homes, and making infill development on smaller lots less feasible; and 2) they incentivize car ownership and driving which adds to traffic. Willson noted that in Southern California cities impose parking minimums to avoid spillover parking on local streets and properties, to improve traffic circulation and to ensure economic success of projects. It is not clear that parking minimums solve any of these problems and actually may aggravate them all.
Images:
1. Courtesy of Angela Brooks
2. Courtesy of Patrick Siegman
3. Courtesy of Patrick Siegman