Thanks to California’s new accessory dwelling unit (#ADU) laws, homeowners can help solve our housing shortage. It’s legal now.

But wait, there's more! In cities like #Pasadena, these same laws are making it easier and cheaper to build an addition.😃🧵
pasadenanow.com/main/council-c… Image
Under #Pasadena’s current code, “any addition to an existing residence…of over 150 square feet triggers a requirement to provide two covered spaces within a garage or carport.”

Left: addition legal!
Right: no asphalt, no addition...😢 ImageImage
Instead of managing the curb parking actually owned by the city, #Pasadena planners found it easier to force every homeowner spend tens of thousands of dollars pouring concrete & building garages.

Has this added to Pasadena’s historic charm? ImageImage
California’s state #ADU law now “exempts #ADUs from the requirement to build covered parking altogether, and allows the use of driveways to satisfy off-street parking requirements.” Image
So, if #Pasadena left its code unchanged, “a homeowner would be able to build an #ADU of up to 1,200 square feet without any enclosed parking”, but “a 200 square-foot addition…would..need to provide two covered parking spaces at significant additional cost” Image
To their credit, #Pasadena city staff have “initiated a zoning code amendment ‘to eliminate the requirement for providing two covered parking spaces when constructing any addition, regardless of size, to an existing single family dwelling.’” Image
Every time we pass a state law that limits planners’ authority to impose costly minimum parking mandates on millions of individual homeowners, we help the planning profession grow.

#California planners are learning to manage curb parking now. That’s a good thing! ImageImage

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Patrick Siegman

Patrick Siegman Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @PatrickSiegman

21 Jul
“After eliminating parking requirements, monthly rent in the average #Minneapolis studio apartment fell from $1,200 to less than $1,000.” #AB1401
nhregister.com/opinion/articl…
“As the leader of one of the state’s largest parking authorities, Park #NewHaven, I’ve come to learn a lot about parking. Our business model rests on the notion that parking is better when shared & the cost of parking should be borne by people who want to drive.”

A good policy. Image
“Zoning laws have the opposite result. They impose the cost of parking on nondrivers — and on all of us. Zoning mandates on parking make the cost of construction — and housing — more expensive."

True. Image
Read 5 tweets
12 Jun
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.

cityofpaloalto.org/files/assets/p…
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.

cityofpaloalto.org/files/assets/p…
Read 28 tweets
15 May
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.”

slate.com/business/2021/…
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.”
Read 11 tweets
2 Nov 19
Never think about managing curb parking without thinking about how your approach will affect housing supply, home prices & rents.

We gained majority political support for converting 4 acres of parking into 357 homes at the S. #Hayward #BART Station in no small part by…

#YIMBY
…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.

photo courtesy of:
jerocorp.com/cadence-apartm…
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.

#YIMBY
hayward-ca.gov/discover/news/…
Read 6 tweets
11 Oct 19
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.

#YIMBY
railvolution.org/wp-content/upl…
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.
Read 4 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

:(