Imposing minimum parking mandates on commercial land uses near transit makes housing scarce and expensive.
If you have difficulty envisioning why, try adding homes near this #Milpitas light rail station. See all this underused asphalt? It’s all required by law.
Here's what a #Milpitas light right station area looks like on the ground.
To get here, take the #VTA light rail line to the Alder stop. Then, trudge north through a sea of parking.
#Milpitas could instead manage curb parking near the station, using prices and permits, and remove its costly minimum parking regulations. Many cities have already done this.
If #Milpitas removed its costly minimum parking regulations, it would increase regional housing affordability, while reducing traffic, pollution, and vehicle crashes. We’d all benefit. But cities like Milpitas have, for decades, failed to act. Our state legislature must step in
If our state Senators pass #AB1401, converting these underused #Milpitas rail station-area parking lots to housing will be financially feasible.
#AB1401 will be up for a crucial vote tomorrow. Call your senator today!
When you read about homelessness in #GrantsPass, #Oregon, remember one thing. For more than half a century, the city has adopted, enforced, and defended laws that push people into homelessness.
Consider just one of them...🧵/1
For decades, Grants Pass has imposed off-street parking mandates. Since at least 1961, researchers have warned that these regulations limit the supply of housing and drive up its cost. The city adopted them anyway. /2
In its quest to ensure ample free parking at every destination, Grants Pass mandated parking for every conceivable land-use, including a minimum of 1 space per five inmates at a prison and 6 spaces “per line” at a bowling alley. (Huh?) /3
Owners of even the cheapest fleabag motels know they must keep track of how many rooms they have & whether they are empty or full.
But today, the year’s busiest shopping day, most retail areas won’t be tracking how many parking spots they have & whether they are empty or full.🧵
This helps explain why so many cities have ill-advised parking policies that frustrate customers, damage economies, waste taxpayer dollars, worsen traffic jams, and, all too often, end with motorists brawling over parking spots.
Let me suggest a few solutions. /2
When I lead studies of retail districts, like downtown #VenturaCA, business owners, managers, planners, & politicians often tell me that their shopping area has a “parking problem”. They’re usually right. But what is the nature of that problem? /3
Maybe 'cuz if it “eliminated a system in which forests’ worth of papers are pushed from one desk to the next, it would’ve ruined the cottage industry of connected permit expediters who...always manage to get their folders placed on the top of the pile”/3 missionlocal.org/2021/02/san-fr…
For centuries, Americans built compact, walkable, neighborhoods. They provide affordable shelter & let us meet many daily needs without getting in a car. They're a great American tradition
Today, we took a big step toward making that tradition legal again qz.com/2052284/califo…
Here’s a traditional fourplex at 203 Bryant St, #PaloAlto. It’s on a 5000 sf lot. That’s 35 homes per net residential acre. At that level of compactness, people walk a lot more & drive a lot less.
This is the kind of traditional American housing that #SB9 will make legal again.
As the @SierraClub’s John Holtzclaw explains, “This study suggests the following actions to reduce our dependence on the automobile, afford us more transportation options, reduce congestion buildup and reduce air pollution:…”
“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.
“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."
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...😢
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.