Why did it take so long for us to realize that thousands of California homeowners want to have renters next door? Because until 2017, most CA homeowners couldn’t legally build an accessory dwelling unit (#ADU) on their property.
My mom & dad bought their first house in #PaloAlto for about $16,000. At the time, it cost about 5 cents per hour to park downtown. Today, that same house would cost ~$3 million & it’s free to park downtown.
We have completely solved our affordable housing problem–for our cars🧵
In 2019, surveyors counted 313 homeless people in #PaloAlto, up 99% from 2013. They found no homeless cars.
How did #PaloAlto become a city of expensive housing and free parking? In 1951, Palo Alto adopted a new zoning ordinance. The new law limited housing and required parking.
1/11 “A few years ago, @LauraFriedman43 toured an affordable housing project in #Glendale, the city of 200,000 she represents in the California State Assembly. What caught her eye was the garage: a cavernous, subterranean space, virtually empty.”
2/11 “To comply with local parking requirements—two spaces for every studio or one-bedroom apartment, and rising from there—the builders had been forced to pour millions of dollars of concrete and reduce their number of new apartments..."
3/11 “…all to build a garage their low-income tenants would never fill.
“’These requirements are definitely stopping housing,’ she concluded.”
…agreeing to provide existing nearby residents with free residential parking permits, so they had no fear of the curb parking in front of their homes becoming overcrowded.
Agreeing to give free residential parking permits to existing nearby residents also created support for removing all minimum parking regulations, reducing the cost of these affordable & market-rate homes & allowing for lower rents.
When cities manage curb parking properly, curb parking shortages will disappear & minimum parking regulations can be removed, even in cities where no public transit exists.
If your planners don’t believe me, ask them to critique this presentation.
Corollary: When cities fail to manage curb parking properly, no amount of public transit will prevent curb parking shortages.
Do you doubt that? Try visiting #SF’s #UnionSquare, which has the best transit service of any place west of Chicago, after 6 PM when the meters turn off.
Before 6 PM, #SF’s #SFpark program is in effect in #UnionSquare: demand-based curb parking prices balance supply & demand, so curb parking is easy to find.
After 6 PM, curb parking prices are cut to $0, so curbs become overcrowded. All the buses in the world won't fix this.