Parking reform for rural community

[u/the_napsterr]

I'm a consultant for a small dense town that is located in a rural area. Thus public transit is non-existent and sidewalks and mulit-modal has not picked up. However, the town itself is densely developed and has numerous historic small lots.

The zoning ordinance is from the 90a and so the parking minimums are from that era. We have been working to modernize portions as we can and have the political capital too.

We have been running into issues where clearly the parking minimums are too high and we are needing variances for retail constantly. I believe I have the political push from the PC and the city to push for strong changes. My main plan of attack is to offer some solutions at tiered approaches to not shock the system.

1. Consider switching the minimums to maximums and let the market decide. Primarily for retail/commercial. Maybe set a base minimum.

Or

1. Consider modernizing the ratio to reflect the modern shopper behavior. Offer concessions for on street parking, bike or horse and buggy (strong Amish community) or shared parking agreements to further lower the requirements.

Or

1. Just try to modernize the ratios as is.

I'd like to do some form of 1 and 2 combined ideally. But, if the willpower is not there, does anyone have resources for newer ratios that work and can float to alleviate the pressure outside of just trial and error or business outreach?

[u/VincentClement1]

Just get rid of parking minimums.

[u/SadButWithCats → u/VincentClement1]

Yup. Frame it as removing government mandates on what a person is allowed to do with their land, or removing costly red tape (you won't need taxpayer money to pay someone whose job it is to count parking spaces - isn't that silly we used to do that? ) if you have to. Or that you trust your local small business owners to be able figure out how much parking they need more than you trust some eggheads in [capital city] who wrote a book 30 years ago.

[u/ihopuhopwehop → u/SadButWithCats]

Frame it as a reason to form a parking authority to build revenue generating lots and garages

[u/advamputee]

Some small towns replaced parking minimums with a city managed parking fund. 

Instead of developers having to provide parking on their lot (and paying to build the parking), they pay a small parking tax (less than it’d cost to build / maintain their own parking), which the city uses to build/manage larger city-owned parking lots and structures. 

Either that or just entirely remove parking requirements. Businesses can determine their own parking needs. They don’t need government red tape. 

[u/ihopuhopwehop → u/advamputee]

Thats genius, you use the revenue from that fee to build lots and garages that will generate more revenue

[u/advamputee → u/ihopuhopwehop]

If I recall correctly, Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA is a major case study for this type of parking system. It keeps downtown dense and walkable, while ensuring there’s uniform signage directing people to well-maintained parking structures. 

[u/michiplace]

A couple options -

What were the reqs before the 90s ordinance?  Were those specifically not working, or can you use those as precedent to go back to?  If you can say, "the 90s ZO update increased parking requirements based on comparisons at the time - but it turns out we were trying to solve a problem we didn't have, and created new ones. Let's call that a failed experiment and go back to the old numbers."

Or, if you've passed a number of variances -- have those worked out okay, or have those sites had problems?  If you're repeatedly approving similar variances and it's turning out fine, you have evidence that the pattern of lower ratios granted in the variances should be the actual standard.

Regardless of what else you do or don't do, give your PC the power to waive a portion of the parking requirement during site plan review.  Don't make it a separate variance step, just bake a discretionary 20% reduction or whatever into the PC action.

Finally, messaging is key.  All of the above options can be framed as relying on local experience and knowledge of how things work here -- and you can probably throw the existing standards under the buggy as numbers that were inappropriately copied from outside sources without considering the local context and needs.

[u/hotsaladwow]

I work for a dense suburb and the way it was done here is simply grandfathering in any existing development for parking. So brand new development is subject to some relatively reasonable parking requirements, but changes of use in existing structures are fine. And on-street parking can count towards requirements for new development.

It also helps that Illinois passed the people over parking act, which exempts a lot of dense areas from parking requirements. But yeah I’d just take a balanced approach of tying any requirements to new builds and maybe loosening the requirements that apply to them slightly. Also allow off-site parking to count for them, within a certain radius.

[u/bugi_ → u/hotsaladwow]

Sounds kinda backwards to have regulation where space is plentiful and no regulation in denser areas. Then again, that's policy tools for ya!

[u/efficient_pepitas]

Parking also causes me pain in my job.

I don't have specific ordinance language to suggest, but make sure your messaging is pro-parking, especially pro-street parking

People see a lot of noise online about parking reform taking away parking - which happens and isn't bad in the right context - and that idea will make your job harder.

Anyway to increase street parking in conjunction with this? A street ripe for 45° parking, etc.

[u/ihopuhopwehop]

Step 1: modify zoning code to prevent anyone private entity from building a lot

Step 2: eliminate parking minimums

Step 3: get a bond past to buy land and build a municipal lot. Sell it as revenue producing. Make sure the bond specifies that you must be the head of whatever public authority owns the lot and that whatever cash flow after debt service and maintence/operations remains has to stay within the public authority you're the head of

Step 4: expand the mission of the public authority your the head of that owns this lot, starting addressing other infrastructure needs. Always make sure the bonds you issue require you to remain the head of the public authority. Refinance expiring bonds to make sure none of the public assets you get built can be pulled away

[u/Blazeit42071069]

Reduce minimums and create a parking in lieu fee per stall for developments in the central business district, if there is already parking capacity.

[u/moto123456789]

There is no objective rationale for parking minimums other than a local government wanting to encourage driving.

The ostensible reason for minimums is to "prevent congestion on the street"--but the best way to manage street congestion is by addressing it there, in the ROW, not on the private property alongside of it.

Just recommend removing minimums unless they have policy guidance to ensure that driving remains easy and subsidized, in that case keep them.