Thread by @ncoxbarrett

Hurray, it's Thursday and that means ZOAC is discussing PARKING!

Last time on ZOAC LIVE! Dallas City Staff engineered a major coup by organizing a host of City department heads to tell the ZOAC members that parking requirements make their jobs harder.

In other handy context, Transfers Magazine just released a study on the effect of reduced parking requirements on what actually got built in Seattle. transfersmagazine.org/magazine-artic…

This article and more great parking reform content at the @Parking_Reform! Which you should definitely support.

Chair Murphy brings up the tragic case of beautiful mansion on Live Oak that someone wanted to turn into a wedding venue. They couldn't park it, so it was demolished and replaced by some townhouses (which are fine, but I hate that parking was the driver).

Now opening for discussion among ZOAC Members: Member Rieves talks about Lenders requiring the parking.

Note: If your bank is denying your loan because of Parking...find a new bank. I am also yet to see an actual example of this.

Chair Murphy comments: "Why would we let a lender decide things for our city?"

Note: *Swoon*

Commissioner MacGregor brings up economics: Says it raises costs and locks up the value of the land and all the parking hurts the environment. He also recalls the comment from City staff about the added costs parking causes for affordable housing.

ZOAC Member Andrew Castella: Says he works in CRE lending. He says lenders look at norms for the area and decide from there. He's been involved in deals in other cities for hotels with *NO* parking. Says the lenders follow the City trends.

Note: EXACTLY.

More note: We won't ever get to reduced parking if we don't eliminate the regulatory barriers that prevent it. We get the city we regulate for. This isn't a chicken/egg problem: the City HAS to take the first move to eliminate the requirement.

Streets Asst Director Gus Khankarli returns again this week to talk about the ROW & Curb Mgmt impacts:

He says the city has started a Curb Management study to determine what policy changes need to be made.

Note: I inquired about this study after the last ZOAC meeting, it is barely getting started.

Murphy: Asks about how any given development might be different if it were built today. She asks "Northpark Mall is a sea of parking, would it look the same if it were built today?"

Note: Hard to say. I doubt most malls would be built today. Northpark is exceptionally successful

note continued: Northpark is one of the most successful malls in the country (possibly the world).

Even more note: Northpark was built in a unique combination of cheap land coupled with a ridiculous amount infrastructure investment right next to it, seated next to our wealthiest neighborhoods. If it wasn't already there, would any developer risk building a new mall there?

Engineering's David Nevarez: Northpark is already multi-modal. Their parking arrangements require shuttles to nearby transit nodes to meet their parking requirements.

Note: Places like northpark will still exist even in a no-parking required world and that's OK!

Murphy: The City's OEQ has a goal to incentivize all modes of transportation. City staff (I think) says transportation is the biggest piece of their environmental impact analyses (paraphrase, there was a lot).

Note: Parking reform: best/easiest/cheapest way to positive change

Susan Alvarez: Northpark was built in a different context. Thinks it would look more like Knox/Henderson today.

Note: Definitely different back in 1965

Some of the talk of Northpark Center, a huge, ridiculously successful, world-wide famous mall, is counterproductive: Why focus on a this unrepeatable outlier instead of the tens of thousands of other development projects?

Chair Murphy: Brings up "green taping" (expediting more sustainable designs). Alvarez: There are challenges to that, but might be an incentive that helps.

Note: Chief Planner Sarah May last week said parking reviews waste a huge amount of time. Simply eliminating would expedite.

Office of Econ Development: Comments were Dallas needs

-Central Parking Authority to manage parking
-"Park once" solutions
-Fee in lieu of parking
-Stop managing parking without good data

Sadly, OED member is not on hand to answer questions.

Note on above: These are all fine things, but ancillary to the centrally important thing: eliminating parking requirements.

Moving on to PARKING METERS, which, to me, are almost as exciting as eliminating parking requirements.

Engineering: Apparently under the City Code parking meters are limited to explicitly authorized area requiring a council approval to change and cannot increase the number of meters by more than 10% annually.

Note: Not surprising, but of course terrible for good policy.

Murphy: We received a comment that city policy is parking should be free. Is this true?

Nevarez: No and Transportation appreciates every single penny that comes from those meters.

Chair Murphy: There's some truth to this, you can't charge by the hour or day for required parking on surface lots.

Chief Planner Sarah May: There are even more exceptions to this and elaborates.

Note: It is very complicated.

Chair Murphy: Why would you take the bus anywhere if as a city we've guaranteed free parking at any destination?

Note: Is Chair Murphy reading Market Urbanism's blog?! marketurbanism.com/2017/08/03/how…

ZOAC Rieves: How are we supposed to deal with spillover parking from places like Lower Greenville into adjacent residential neighborhood. Asks has paid parking nearby residential neighborhoods worked anywhere else?

Nevarez: They will look into it.

Rieves: If the money was going back to the neighborhood, residents might really be into this.

David Nevarez: Important management question is who collects and get the money distributed?

Planning Staff Udrea: Staff is currently researching how these "Parking Benefit District" is being applied elsewhere.

I wrote a few ideas about this: medium.com/@ncoxbarrett/t…

Chair Murphy: Have we looked at adjusting the compact (which is limited as a percentage of overall parking) or tandem parking?

David Cossum: ZOAC looked at Compact parking reqs about 10 years ago. Said developer feedback was as long as parking was required, don't touch it.

Staff Peer Chacko: In core of CBD, parking demand far exceeds supply. On fringes of CBD, supply exceeds demand. Says there's a perception that there isn't enough parking downtown.

Also says comparing places like Northpark to Downtown is bad because of separated uses at Northpark

Peer Chacko: Says in mixed-use area, parking supply should be thought of like utility supply (e.g. water lines): no individual property owner should supply all their utilities but should be viewed as a shared infrastructure.

Housing Policy Staff Pam Thompson: Yes, affordable housing is an acute need in Dallas. We need more flexibility in our housing.

Chair Murphy: "So there is a correlation between housing affordability and requirements to provide parking?"

Staff Thompson: Yes. Gives the basic math of financing, construction costs adding to unit cost.

Note: Also opportunity cost of NOT providing more housing!

Sadly, we are out of time and must release ZOAC so CPC members can go to Planning Commission, where I am also scheduled to appear to beg for zoning mercy, again!