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Finding the Balance through
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Parking Spaces / Community Places
Finding the Balance through Smart Growth Solutions
Development, Community, and Environment Division (1807T)
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Washington, DC 20460
EPA231-K-06-001
January 2006
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Acknowledgements
7 his guidebook was compiled by U.S. EPA's Development, Com-
munity, and Environment Division (DCED) and contractors using
existing and new case studies, current bibliographical research,
and interviews with experts. The work was funded through EPA Contracts
68-W4-0041 and 68-W-99-046. DCED would like to thank representatives
of the following organizations for their participation in developing this report:
City Carshare; Institute of Transportation Engineers; Lindbergh City Center;
McCaffery Interests; Melvin Mark Companies; NASAAmes Research Center;
Prendergast& Associates, Inc.; SAFECO; TransManagement; Valley Transit
Authority; the Cities of Wilton Manors (Florida), Long Beach (California), Mi-
ami Beach, Milwaukee, and Seattle; Arlington County, Virginia; and the
developers of the Van Ness and Turk project and the Rich Sorro Commons
project described in this report. DCED is grateful for the contributions of
these participants.
In addition, DCED would like to thank the following individuals for their
comments on drafts of the document. Organizations are provided for identifi-
cation purposes only.
Robert Dunphy, Urban Land Institute
Kenneth Fritz, Village of Schamburg, Illinois
Christopher Hudson, Congress for New Urbanism
Todd Juhasz, Westchester County Department of Planning
Michael R. Kodama, Michael R. Kodama Planning Consultants
Todd Litman, Victoria Transport Policy Instititute
Thomas Robertson, Montgomery County Department of Park
and Planning
Timothy Rood, Calthorpe Associates
Dr. Richard Wilson, California State Polytechnic University
Staff from the U.S. DOT'S Federal Highway Administration
and Federal Transit Administration
Mention of trade names, products, or services does not convey official
EPA approval, endorsement, or recommendation.
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Table of Contents
Introduction 1
Beyond Generic Parking Requirements 6
The Costs of Parking 9
Innovative Parking Alternatives 13
Reduce Oversupply 13
Manage Demand 22
Pricing Strategies 29
Case Studies 35
Innovative Parking Policies:
Portland, Oregon 36
Context-Specific Requirements and Travel Demand Management:
Arlington County, Virginia 42
Transportation Management for Mixed-Use Development:
Santa Clara, California, NASA Research Park 45
Reduced Parking Requirements:
Wilton Manors, Florida, The Shoppes of Wilton Manors 48
Transportation Demand Management Program:
Redmond, Washington, SAFECO Insurance Company Expansion . 50
Shared Parking and In-Lieu Fees:
Long Beach, California, Embassy Suites at D'Orsay Promenade .. 52
References 56
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Introduction
A i hen you shop, you may visit a mall, or go to your town's
\/\i main street. At the mall, you probably cruise past
If If rows and rows of empty parking, the spaces filled only one day
a year. Maybe you head downtown, but can only find vacant storefronts.
And where things are bustling, you can't find convenient parking near the
stores you want to visit. All three of these scenarios represent a "parking
problem" that has a negative impact on other community goals. At the mall,
overbuilt parking consumes land and wastes money. Downtown, storefronts
may sit empty because new businesses that would like to move in can't meet
high parking requirements - and too little parking makes good businesses
less viable.
But what does parking have to do with the environment, and the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)? Research and reports from EPA
and others show that the way we develop our communities has a major im-
pact on the quality of the natural environment. Regions with walkable, mixed-
use, compact neighborhoods, towns, and cities, knit together by a robust
network of transportation and environmental corridors, protect human health
and the natural environment. The research shows that development reflect-
ing smart growth principles can lead to reduced growth in air pollution and
less polluted runoff into streams and lakes. It also leads to a reduction in the
amount of pristine land consumed by development, which can help preserve
habitat for many species. Air pollution is reduced because such compact
areas make it easier for some people to choose to walk and bike for some
trips, and others will be able to drive shorter distances or take transit. Along
with fewer and shorter trips by car comes a reduced need for parking, and
that means less land needs to be paved for parking lots or garages. That
reduces development costs and leaves more open ground that can filter rain-
water, and more open space for birds, animals, and people to enjoy. For a
thorough discussion of the connections between development patterns and
environmental quality, see Our Built and Natural Environments: A Technical
Review of the Interactions Between Land Use, Transportation, and Environ-
mental Quality (EPA, 2001 a).
Many communities are evaluating parking issues as part of a broader
process of reevaluating their overall goals for growth. They want and need
new residents and jobs - for vitality, economic growth, and other reasons -
but they need to decide how and where to accommodate them. In cities,
towns, and countryside, new and newly rediscovered development patterns
offer solutions. In many places, walkable town centers that offer stores,
workplaces, and housing in close proximity are replacing malls and office
parks, offering shops and dining along with places to live and work. New
neighborhoods offer different housing types and daily conveniences within a
pleasant, safe walking distance. Vacant, underused and contaminated sites
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Parking Spaces/Community Places: Finding the Balance through Smart Growth Solutions
can be reclaimed and benefit their communities with new jobs and housing,
improved recreational opportunities, and increased fiscal stability. Many com-
munities are working to offer choices to residents, so they can take a train,
ride a bike, or walk instead of driving, if that is what is best for them and their
families. Whether the resulting development patterns are called smart growth,
quality growth, or balanced growth, they work by creating great places.
Communities and developers recognize that compact, mixed-use, walk-
able places need parking to thrive. Retail activity in particular requires con-
venient parking spaces that can handle high turnover. Businesses almost
always need some parking for their employees, but the amount needed can
vary widely. The need for parking may shift throughout the day as people
come to shop, employees head to work, and residents go out for the evening.
Residents and employees in more compact areas usually own fewer cars
and drive less than is typical in conventional developments. Yet typical park-
ing regulations and codes simply require a set amount of parking for a given
square footage or number of units, assuming all trips will be by private auto-
mobile and ignoring the neighborhood's particular mix of uses, access to
transit and walking, and context within the metropolitan region. Such inflexi-
ble parking requirements can force businesses to provide unneeded parking
that wastes space and money. The space and money devoted to unneces-
sary parking could be used to accommodate other homes, businesses, shop-
ping, or recreational opportunities in the community. In some cases, rigid
parking standards can discourage or even prevent development, because
providing it is just too expensive - and developers are usually offered no
alternative.
In cities and counties across the country, inflexible minimum parking re-
quirements are the norm ~ but they represent a barrier to better develop-
ment, including redevelopment of vacant city land and contaminated sites.
EPA developed this guide for local government officials, planners, and devel-
opers in order to:
• demonstrate the significance of parking decisions in development
patterns;
• illustrate the environmental, financial, and social impact of parking
policies;
• describe strategies for balancing parking with other community goals;
and
• provide case studies of places that are successfully using these
strategies.
The policies described in this report can help communities explore new,
flexible parking policies that can encourage growth and balance their parking
needs with their other goals. The case study in this report of the SAFECO
Corporation (see page 50) illustrates the potential to use parking policies to
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Parking Spaces/Community Places: Finding the Balance through Smart Growth Solutions
save money, improve the environment, and meet broader community goals.
SAFECO has its corporate headquarters in the Seattle region. To accommo-
date new employees, this insurance company built three new buildings and
underground parking garages. In an effort to balance parking needs with
their financial, environmental, and design goals, they choose to offer employ-
ees transit passes, vanpool and rideshare incentives, or parking. Over 40
percent of SAFECO's employees choose an alternative to driving alone. As
a result, each year SAFECO's 1700 employees drive about 1.2 million miles
less than average commuters in the Seattle region, saving 28 tons of carbon
monoxide, a serious pollutant tracked by the EPA. SAFECO also reduced
the amount of ground that needed to be paved by 100,000 square feet,
leading to less runoff in this rainy area. The company saves an estimated
$230,000 per year, after accounting for the costs of incentives and the sav-
ings from reducing the amount of parking built.
Several EPA programs recognize the superior environmental performance
of alternatives to driving alone and to conventional low-density, single-use
development patterns. For example, EPA and the U.S. Department of Trans-
portation sponsor the successful Best Workplaces for Commuters program
(EPA, 2005a), which advocates employer-provided commuter benefits that
encourage shifts from long-distance solo driving and parking. On a regional
level, EPA offers areas that wish to recognize the emissions benefits of smart
growth guidance for "Improving Air Quality Through Land Use Activities" (EPA,
2001 b). EPA has also published "Protecting Water Resources with Smart
Growth" (EPA, 2004), which includes 75 policies and programs that help
meet water quality and other community goals. EPA and its partners in the
Smart Growth Network (see box) also offer very successful resources on the
policies and actions that create smart growth. "Getting to Smart Growth"
(ICMA, 2002) and "Getting to Smart Growth II" (ICMA, 2003), published by
the International City/County Management Association and the Smart Growth
Network, detail 200 policies that communities have used to create new de-
velopment to serve the needs of their residents and businesses, local gov-
ernments, and the environment. For more information on these and other
resources, and instructions on how to receive them, visit
www.epa.gov/smartgrowth.
This report adds to this collection of resources, pointing communities and
developers to proven techniques for balancing parking and other goals to
enhance the success of new compact walkable places. The report begins
with a discussion of the demand for parking and a review of the costs of
parking. The following sections detail innovative techniques and case stud-
ies explain how they have been used to solve parking problems in specific
places.
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Parking Spaces/Community Places: Finding the Balance through Smart Growth Solutions
Principles of smart growth
Smart growth is development that serves communities, the economy, public
health, and the environment. The original Smart Growth Network part-
ners articulated the following principles describing smart growth, based
on their experience in communities nationwide. These principles have
since been adopted by many organizations and communities to help de-
scribe the development patterns they seek to create.
1. Mix land uses.
2. Take advantage of compact building design.
3. Create a range of housing opportunities and choices.
4. Create walkable neighborhoods.
5. Foster distinctive, attractive communities with a strong sense of
place.
6. Preserve open space, farmland, natural beauty, and critical envi-
ronmental areas.
7. Strengthen and direct development toward existing
communities.
8. Provide a variety of transportation choices.
9. Make development decisions predictable, fair, and cost-
effective.
10. Encourage community and stakeholder collaboration in develop-
ment decisions.
For more information, visitwww.epa.gov/smartgrowth.
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Parking Spaces/Community Places: Finding the Balance through Smart Growth Solutions
About the Smart Growth Network
The Smart Growth Network, formed in 1996, is a loose coalition of organi-
zations and individuals that believe that where and how we grow is impor-
tant to our communities, health, and environment. The network is led by
a partnership of over thirty private sector, public sector, and nongovern-
mental organizations that work to help create better development pat-
terns in neighborhoods, communities, and regions across the United States.
It also includes a membership organization of over 900 individuals, com-
munity organizations, and other stakeholder groups. These organiza-
tions endorse the principles listed on the previous page.
The Smart Growth Network partners range from planners and archi-
tects to developers and financiers and funders, from community advo-
cates to traditional environmentalists, from real estate agents to transpor-
tation engineers, and include both governmental associations and parts
of the federal government. For more information on the Smart Growth
Network, its partners and membership program, and the annual New Part-
ners for Smart Growth conference, visitwww.smartgrowth.org.
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Beyond Generic Parking Requirements
Most planners
surveyed relied on
neighboring cities and
national handbooks to
determine parking
requirements. This
practice may result in
inappropriate
requirements if local
conditions or policy
approaches differ.
— Michael Kodama,
Michael R. Kodama Planning
Associates
/n calculating parking requirements, planners typically use
generic standards that apply to individual land-use categories, such
as residences, offices, and shopping. The most commonly used guide-
lines, issued by the Institute of Transportation Engineers in the Parking Gen-
eration Handbook (ITE, 2004), are based on observations of peak demand
for parking at single-use developments in relatively low-density settings with
little transit (Shoup, 2005). In such places, the destinations are widely sepa-
rated, parking is typically free, and walking, biking, and transit are not avail-
able. As a result, planners assume in effect that every adult has a car, every
employee drives to work, and every party visiting a restaurant arrives by car.
Under these conditions, parking can take up more than 50 percent of the
land used in a development (see figure). For more compact, mixed-use,
walkable places, these standards end up calling for far more parking than is
needed.
A surplus of parking really can be too much of a good thing. It creates a
'dead zone' of empty parking lots in the middle of what ought to be a bustling
commercial district or neighborhood. This dead zone means there is less
room for the offices and homes that would supply a steady stream of office
workers and residents who might patronize businesses in the area - and
less room to cluster other businesses that will attract more foot traffic. Re-
quiring more parking than the market actually demands adds substantial costs
to development and redevelopment, and in some cases the added costs will
prevent development altogether. For example, the future site of the D'Orsay
Hotel in a prime location in Long Beach, California sat for years as a low-
revenue parking lot - every developer who considered building on it was
stopped in part by the high cost of building a garage to fulfill the city's mini-
mum parking requirement. It is under development today as a hotel and retail
complex in large part because innovative strategies reduced the parking bur-
den on the developer. See page 52 for the full case study.
Parking requirements are often copied from one jurisdiction to another,
and so are remarkably consistent across different cities. Generic standards
do not take into account the many highly local variables that influence park-
ing, such as density, demographics, availability of public transit, potential for
biking and walking, or the availability of other parking nearby. The obvious
results of such rigid requirements are big empty parking lots - and they can
also result in empty buildings. Perfectly useable space in older buildings
with limited or no on-site parking may prove unrentable, because the busi-
nesses that would like to locate there are unable to meet high minimum park-
ing requirements. The buildings remain vacant, thwarting redevelopment
plans (Shoup, 2005).
Generic parking standards have simply not kept up the complexity of mod-
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Parking Spaces/Community Places: Finding the Balance through Smart Growth Solutions
ern mixed-use development and redevelopment. But parking requirements
can be altered to allow planners to better measure the true demand for park-
ing and to balance parking with wider community goals. This approach en-
tails careful consideration of land-use and transportation characteristics that
relate to parking demand. Successful examples consider the following fac-
tors.
• Development type and size. Take into account the specific char-
acteristics of the project: is there a large theatre that requires evening park-
ing, or will small shops attract short-term, daytime patronage? Can the two
share parking spaces? Parking demand is of course also influenced by the
size of the development, which is typically measured by total building square
footage.
• Development density and design. Consider the density of the
development. Research shows that each time residential density doubles,
auto ownership falls by 32 to 40 percent (Holtzclaw et al. 2002). Higher
densities mean that destinations are closer together, and more places can be
reached on foot and by bicycle—reducing the need to own a car. Density is
also closely associated with other factors that influence car ownership, such
as the presence of good transit service, the community's ability to support
stores located in neighborhoods, and even the walkability of neighborhood
streets.
• Demographics. Consider the characteristics of the people using
Site Coverage
for Typical Commercial Development
(averages for Olympia, Washington)
Lawns/Landscaping
13%
Building Footprint
26%
Source: City of Olympia Public Works Department, and the Washington State Department
of Ecology, 1995.
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Parking Spaces/Community Places: Finding the Balance through Smart Growth Solutions
In the process of
establishing parking
requirements, local
communities are
sometimes engaged in
a balancing act. They
must consider access,
mobility, and traffic
safety, but they also
must encourage
appropriate land use
and traffic
management,
environmental
protection, and energy
and resource
conservation.
— Thomas P. Smith
"Flexible Parking
Requirements"
Planners Advisory Service
Report 377
the development, including employees, customers, residents, and visitors.
People of different incomes and ages tend to have different car ownership
rates.
• Availability of transportation choices. Take into account the modes
of transportation available to employees, visitors, and residents. Access to
public transportation in a particular development, for example, can reduce
parking demand. Walkable neighborhoods and bicycle amenities can also
reduce parking demand.
• Surrounding land-use mix. Consider the neighboring land uses
and density to better understand parking needs. For example, an office
building parking lot will be empty when the restaurant next door is packed, so
requiring both to provide for 100 percent of their parking needs simply wastes
space.
• Off-site parking. Consider the parking that is already available near-
by: on the street, on nearby properties, or in public garages that may be
available for users of a new development. On-street parking can be consid-
ered to reduce the amount of on-site parking required for new development,
or as a reserve should new uses require more parking than expected. On
street parking has the added benefit of acting as a buffer between pedestri-
ans and traffic, increasing the attractiveness of walking.
Land use and demographic information are important tools for establish-
ing context-specific parking requirements that better balance supply and
demand for parking.
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The Costs of Parking
7 his section describes the costs of providing parking,
both in terms of financial and environmental health. While parking
is necessary, providing too much of it can exert a high cost, so
understandings its impact is important. That impact can vary considerably
with the amount and type of parking provided, and the types of development
being served.
Financial Costs
The financial cost of providing parking is driven by three key factors: the
number of parking spaces required, the 'opportunity cost' of the land used for
parking, and the cost per parking space1. Parking requirements that assume
suburban levels of demand in urban locations may necessitate large surface
lots or parking garages, unnecessarily increasing the cost of infill and other
compact development. The opportunity cost is the cost of using a space for
parking instead of for a use with higher value. This varies considerably
depending on the development context. In infill locations, the opportunity
cost can be quite high, as each on-site parking space can reduce the number
of new housing units or other users by 25 percent or more (Transportation
and Land Use Coalition, 2002).
The cost per space depends on engineering and design considerations.
Cost per parking space includes land, construction, maintenance, utilities,
insurance, administrative, and operation costs (Tumlin and Siegman, 1993).
The per-space costs tend to be higher in infill locations, providing a strong
incentive for avoiding a parking surplus. Towns that are trying to encourage
infill development or compact new suburbs can help spur those activities by
accurately gauging parking demand. In general, the following factors affect
the cost per space of parking:
• Structured versus surface parking. Parking garages are more
costly to construct, operate, and maintain than surface parking
lots, but can be desirable in urban locations seeking to create a
more walkable environment. For example, Shoup (1998) reports
construction costs of over $29,000 per space for a structured ga-
rage in Walnut Creek, California, against perhaps $2,000 per space
to construct surface parking. Underground parking structures are
more costly to construct than above-ground structures because of
the added expense of excavation and required engineering.
Ignoring both the cost
of providing parking
spaces and the price
charged for parking in
them, urban planners
thus set minimum
parking requirements to
satisfy maximum
parking demand.
— Donald Shoup
Department of Urban
Planning, UCLA
1 All costs are updated to 2004 dollars. Costs include various components as noted. Where
amortized, they assume a 7.5% interest rate over a 30-year period, and annual operating costs.
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Parking Spaces/Community Places: Finding the Balance through Smart Growth Solutions
Land cost. Land costs vary widely across settings (urban/subur-
ban), geographic areas, and location within a particular city. Land
costs in urban centers are generally much higher than in subur-
ban areas. For example, in 1997 the cost per square foot of land in
downtown Charlotte, North Carolina, was $121, while suburban
land cost $21 (ULI, 1997). Higher land costs make the efficient
supply and use of parking critical to development and redevelop-
ment in urban areas.
Configuration and size of parking facility. Parking structures
and lots are more expensive to build and operate on
smaller lots and complex land configurations, due in
part to economies of scale. For example, smaller ga-
rages have higher costs per parking space because
of the fixed capital costs (e.g., stairwells, ramps, and
elevators) and fixed operating costs. These charac-
teristics—smaller lots and more complex land
configurations—are typical of urban areas, making
parking more expensive at these locations.
• Geologic conditions. Parking structures on land
with more sensitive seismic conditions or land with
difficult terrain also cost more per parking space be-
cause they require more complex engineering and
construction design. While geologic conditions vary
across the country, developers have a greater choice
of sites when considering development in suburban
and rural areas. Sites in urban areas are more limit-
ed, and terrain with geologic constraints may be more
difficult to avoid.
Land and construction costs, which account for most
of the costs of parking, vary considerably across cities
and parking designs. Construction costs alone also range
widely due to building codes, materials, and labor costs,
but per space construction costs for structures (above-
or below-grade) are typically much higher than for surface lots. Willson (1995)
expresses parking costs in terms of a monthly amount that would pay for the
land, construction, and operating costs of providing a parking space. The
reported monthly cost calculated for six surface parking sites in Southern
California ranged from $50 to $110 per space, with an average of $86. The
average cost for two sites in Southern California with above ground struc-
tured parking was $175 per space per month. Litman (2004) analyzes cost-
recovery thresholds for parking under various scenarios, finding a range from
$20 to nearly $200 per month to finance, build, operate, and maintain a park-
ing space. With such wide variability, national averages, especially those
including land costs, clearly do not have much meaning. This underlines the
10
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Parking Spaces/Community Places: Finding the Balance through Smart Growth Solutions
importance of looking at costs for a specific area when assessing potential
savings from reducing oversupply.
Environmental Costs
In addition to tangible financial costs, parking has 'external' costs that
affect the natural environment and the surrounding community, and these
are typically not factored into development decisions. Parking lots and ga-
rages themselves have a direct impact on the environment, and they can
affect the environment indirectly by cutting off transportation choices, en-
couraging driving that pollutes the environment.
Direct environmental impacts include: degraded water quality, stormwater
management problems, exacerbated heat island effects, and excessive land
consumption. Construction of surface parking often paves ground that once
absorbed and filtered rainwater. This increases stormwater runoff, which
can result in more flooding. The oil and other pollutants washed off the
parking lot exacerbate water pollution. Dark pavement can artificially raise air
temperature, resulting in 'heat islands' that raise air-conditioning bills. In un-
developed areas, forests, wetlands and other natural features should be
considered part of a region's "green infrastructure" that process stormwater,
clean the air, and provide wildlife habitat. Ensuring that parking areas are
sized to a development's actual needs instead of to a generic requirement
can preserve this infrastructure.
Parking also indirectly affects the environment, primarily because parking
influences how and where people choose to travel. In conventional low-den-
sity, single-use development, the required large surface parking lots create
places that are not friendly to pedestrians or transit. These places also re-
quire more and longer trips between homes, workplaces, schools, shops,
and parks. As a result, people make the rational choice to drive almost every-
where - and these areas register more vehicle miles of travel per capita.
Increases in travel rates are associated with increased emissions of pollut-
ants, including carbon monoxide and the pollutants that contribute to
dangerous ground-level ozone. Air pollution is associated with asthma and
many other health problems, driving up health-care costs.
Compact development that mix uses can reduce the need for surface
parking, preserving green infrastructure while also reducing the amount of
driving necessary for community residents. By creating an environment that
supports the efficient use of parking, such development can also lead to
better balance between parking needs and other community goals.
For further discussion of the environmental impact of development pat-
terns, see Our Built and Natural Environments: A Technical Review of the
Interactions between Land Use, Transportation and Environmental Quality
(EPA, 2001 a).
11
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Preceeding Page Blank
Innovative Parking Alternatives
Strategies That Work
Parking Alternative
s local governments respond to public demand for better
development patterns, many have created alternatives to
inflexible minimum parking requirements. The alternatives are aimed
at avoiding an oversupply of parking, minimizing parking demand, or using
the power of the marketplace to regulate parking. In areas of existing devel-
opment, avoiding oversupply encourages
better use of existing parking facilities and
better evaluation of parking needs. Other pol-
icies give people an alternative to driving,
and so reduce the demand for parking. And
market-based pricing systems can help bet-
ter match demand and supply, ensuring
expensive parking spaces are used efficient-
ly. Some of these strategies have lowered
total development costs, further encourag-
ing compact, mixed-use development
patterns that moderate parking demand.
Example Location
Context-Specific Requirements
Montgomery County, Maryland
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
LosAngeles, California
Eugene, Oregon
Seattle, Washington
Boston, Massachusetts
Centralized Parking,
In-Lieu Fees
Miami, Florida
Chattanooga, Tennessee
West Palm Beach, Florida
Shared Parking
Long Beach, California
Indianapolis, Indiana
This section presents a selection of poli-
cies that make parking requirements more
flexible. It includes a discussion of how and
why these alternatives were developed, their
advantages and limitations, and real-world
examples. Each application has its own
unique characteristics, and this diversity
makes it impossible to isolate the costs and
benefits of specific policies. The discussion
presented here is not intended to portray any
specific policy as universally applicable.
Rather, community context should always be
considered when balancing parking with oth-
er goals.
Reduce Oversupply
As discussed earlier, in communities work-
ing to create mixed-use, compact, walkable
places, inflexible application of conventional
minimum parking requirements tends to cre-
ate an oversupply of parking. This creates
unnecessary environmental impacts and fi-
Other Supply Strategies
Portland, Oregon
Redmond, Washington
Iowa City, Iowa
Land Banking and
Landscape Reserves
Portland, Oregon
Palo Alto, California
Carmel, California
Cleveland, Ohio
Iowa City, Iowa
Car-Sharing
Boston, Massachusetts
Washington, DC
San Francisco, California
Seattle, Washington
Boulder, Colorado
Subsidies for Transit
Boulder, Colorado
Santa Clara County, California
San Bernardino County, California
Montgomery County, Maryland
Transit Improvements
Portland, Oregon
Chattanooga, Tennessee
Pedestrian and Bicycle Facilities
Schaumburg, Illinois
Kendall, Florida
Transportation Demand Manage-
ment Programs
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Seattle, Washington
Montgomery County, Maryland
Pricing Strategies
LosAngeles, California
Santa Monica, California
San Diego, California
Pasadena, California
13
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Parking Spaces/Community Places: Finding the Balance through Smart Growth Solutions
nancial costs. The strategies discussed below can reduce the supply of
parking while still effectively meeting demand.
Context-Specific Standards
Setting parking standards to fit the particular context of a neighborhood or
development is a challenge planners are just beginning to tackle. As dis-
cussed earlier, parking requirements are often applied for each land use city
wide, and so lack the flexibility needed to address different parking needs.
A major challenge for city planners is how to make codes more flexible
and sensitive to specific local conditions, but still provide the predictability
desired by developers. Codifying reductions in parking requirements pro-
vides the greatest certainty for governments, citizens and neighbors, and
developers, and enables all to plan for balancing parking with other develop-
ment goals. When the reductions in parking requirements are clearly stated
in the codes, developments are less likely to be held up in the permitting
process or challenged by local residents. Planners need to develop an
understanding of local parking markets, combine this with experience from
other settings, and then create local parking requirements. Some of the mech-
anisms being used are:
• Transit zoning overlays. In areas with frequent transit service,
especially those served by rail stations, fewer residents, workers,
and shoppers require parking. In addition, the density and mix of
uses possible around rail stations
can sometimes support market-rate
parking, which leads to more effi-
cient use. Many cities find they can
reduce minimum parking require-
ments for certain uses that are
within a specified distance of a rail
station or frequent bus route. For
example, Montgomery County,
Maryland reduces parking require-
ments by as much as 20 percent,
depending on distance from a
Metrorail station. Parking are only
one aspect of transit zoning over-
lays, which often address issues
such as density, design, and allow-
able uses. Codes may encourage
shared parking in transit zones,
which accommodates more cars
than parking reserved solely for
residents and commuters.
Location-and Use-Specific Requirements
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Milwaukee has some of the lowest city wide parking ratios anywhere in the country.
Parking ratios for retail are two spaces per 1,000 square feet, compared to the Insti-
tute of Transportation Engineers' standard of one to 300 square feet. For business
uses, Milwaukee requires eight spaces for the first 2,000 square feet, and one for
each subsequent 1,000 square feet. In the downtown zone, there are no minimum
parking requirements for any land use except high-density housing, where the ratio
is a very low two spaces per three units. The city generally discourages surface lots
within the downtown and dictates that at least 50 percent of the ground floor of
parking structures be used for retail.
These policies were enacted in 1986 and strengthened in October 2002 with new
credits for transit-oriented development, on-street parking, and shared parking. De-
velopments within a defined geographical area neartransit (which encompasses over
half of the city area) are granted reductions of up to 15 percent in the minimum
requirements. Further reductions are allowed for on-street spaces adjacent to the
property (up to a 1:1 space credit), and for shared parking (up to 0.75 space credit for
each shared space). One to one credits are also allowed for leased parking spaces
in existing lots within 750 feet of the site.
Source: Milwaukee Department of City Development, 2002.
New zoning districts or
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Parking Spaces/Community Places: Finding the Balance through Smart Growth Solutions
Location-and Use-Specific Requirements
Seattle, Washington
Seattle's zoning code grants reductions in minimum parking requirements based on
several factors, including:
• Affordable housing. Minimum parking requirements are reduced to be-
tween 0.5 and 1.0 space per unit, depending on income, location, and
size of unit.
• Senior housing and housing for people with disabilities.
• Car-sharing. Only for multi-family developments that allow dedicated on-
site parking for the city's recognized car-sharing operator.
• Location. No parking minimums are set for downtown and they are re-
duced in mixed-use, dense neighborhoods.\
Source: Seattle Department of Transportation, 2001.
specific plans. In compact, mixed-use, walkable neighborhoods
and town centers parking requirements can frequently be lower than
typical minimum requirements. Some communities have adopted des-
ignated zoning districts or neighborhood specific plans to accomplish
this. Most commonly, this applies to the downtown; Milwaukee finds
that parking and other goals can be met with lower parking require-
ments than in outlying locations. Some areas waive the minimums
altogether, letting the development market decide where and how
to build parking. The same
techniques can be applied to
neighborhoods outside of
downtowns that offer frequent
transit, such as Seattle's Pike/
Pine district. Specific plans,
which detail development re-
quirements at the parcel level,
are particularly useful to en-
courage infill development in
older neighborhoods or on
brownfield sites.
Parking freezes. The amount
of parking required can be di-
rectly reduced through parking
freezes that cap the total num-
ber of parking spaces in a particular metropolitan district. . Cities
with successful parking freezes generally have strong economies
and well developed transit systems, and are attractive to tenants,
customers, and visitors. Such cities can attract businesses because
the benefits of the urban location outweigh the potential drawback
of limited parking, and because public transit offers a viable alterna-
tive to automobile use. Downtown Boston has had a parking freeze
in effect for many years in an effort to control driving and the associ-
ated emissions. Downtown San Francisco has applied a cap on
commuter parking, as their downtown street network functions at
capacity during rush hours, and transit and other travel options are
numerous. Jurisdictions using the restrictions generally view each
new parking space (commuter spaces in particular) as the genera-
tor of one more rush-hour vehicle trip, and want to limit those trips to
reduce air pollution and congestion.
Reductions for affordable and senior housing. Successful re-
gions frequently struggle to provide affordable housing, as desirability
and supply drive up housing prices. In many of these places, pro-
viding housing to lower-income workers and senior citizens can
become an important goal. Since people with lower incomes and
older people tend to own fewer vehicles parking requirements can
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Parking Spaces/Community Places: Finding the Balance through Smart Growth Solutions
be reduced for below-market-rate units and senior housing. This
reduces the overall cost of providing such housing, and may in-
crease the number of units that can be provided. Los Angeles grants
a reduction of 0.5 spaces per unit for deed-restricted affordable
housing units, with further reductions if they are within 1,500 feet of
mass transit or a major bus line.
Case-by-case evaluation. Where area-wide or systematic code
changes are not possible, reductions in parking requirements can
be granted on a case-by-case basis, often on the condition that
mitigation measures such as car-sharing (see page 23) are provid-
ed. Cities such as Eugene, Oregon specify in their zoning codes
that such reductions will be granted subject to a parking study show-
ing that the proposed provision will be adequate to meet demand.
Abolish requirements. Another approach is for cities to simply
abolish all parking requirements in neighborhoods that are served
by a range of travel options and where surrounding residential ar-
eas are protected from spillover parking from other users
(Millard-Ball, 2002). This leaves it up to developers—who have a
financial interest in meeting tenants' needs while not oversupplying
parking—to determine how many spaces are needed.
The generous parking
capacity required by
planners often goes
unused. Studying office
buildings in ten
California cities,
Richard Willson (1995)
found that the peak
parking demand
averaged only 56
percent of capacity.
— Donald Shoup,
UCLA
Maximum Limits and Transferable Parking Entitlements
Maximum limits turn conventional parking requirements upside down by
restricting the total number of spaces that can be constructed. Planners set
maximum limits much as they set minimum requirements. Typically, a maxi-
mum number of spaces is based on the square footage of a specific land
use. For example, Portland, Oregon, allows buildings in the central business
district a maximum of 0.7 parking spaces per 1,000 square feet of office
space, and 1.0 space per 1,000 square feet of net building area for retail.
Communities can make maximum parking requirements more flexible by
introducing transferable parking entitlements, as in Portland Oregon. The
allowed number of parking spaces for a particular development are an "enti-
tlement" that can be transferred or sold to another development if they are
unused. This policy enables cities to control the parking supply, without re-
stricting developments that would not be feasible without additional parking.
Projects that require more parking can proceed, while those that need less
parking can benefit by selling their rights, or negotiating shared parking agree-
ments for their employees or customers.
Portland's planners are using parking maximums in an attempt to "im-
prove mobility, promote the use of alternative modes, support existing and
new economic development, maintain air quality, and enhance the urban
form of the Central City" (City of Portland, 1999). By combining maximums
with transferable parking entitlements, Portland's downtown provides ample
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Parking Spaces/Community Places: Finding the Balance through Smart Growth Solutions
parking for retail and other priority uses, along with market-rate commuter
parking, in a compact, walkable area with a mix of uses and transportation
choices.
Both planners and developers benefit from restricting the number of parking
spaces allowed. From the city's perspective, maximum limits:
• Improve the urban environment by preserving open space and
limiting impervious surfaces;
• Reduce congestion;
• Encourage attractive, pedestrian-friendly urban design; and
• Promote transportation choices.
From the developer's perspective, maximum limits:
• Minimize costs for parking construction, operations, and mainte-
nance;
• Reduce traffic and traffic-related costs; and
• Allow development at a greater floor-to-area ratio, increasing leas-
able space.
There are challenges to setting and main-
taining maximum limits. Planners must consider
possible spillover parking in surrounding resi-
dential neighborhoods if parking in those areas
is free.. To avoid such spillover, developers must
understand the factors that affect parking de-
mand and ensure that viable transportation
choices exist. A common policy for preventing
parking spillover into residential areas is to im-
plement residential parking permit programs, but
these have drawbacks (see discussion of park-
ing benefit districts on page 33). Changes in
frequency or routing of transit, increases or de-
creases in development densities, or changes
in land use can all influence the demand for park-
ing in the neighborhood.
Linking Maximum Limits and Transit Improvements
Portland, Oregon
In Portland, Oregon, maximum parking limits vary according to distance
from light rail stations. For example, new office space on the light rail
transit mall is allowed 0.8 spaces per 1,000 square feet, while office
space in Goose Hollow, located several blocks from the transit mall, is
allowed 2.0 spaces per 1,000 square feet.
These maximum limits have not been problematic to developers. In fact,
property values and customer volume in the parking-restricted areas
near transit stations are higher than in other areas. In a 1987 survey of
54 businesses located near light rail transit, 66 percent of business
owners said that their businesses had been helped because they were
located near public transit; 54 percent reported increased sales vol-
umes as a result of being located near transit, in spite of reduced park-
ing supply.
Source: Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon, 1999.
With restrictive maximum limits on the num-
ber of parking spaces, developers may worry about the long-term marketability
of a property. Marketability should not be a concern for competing develop-
ments in the same locale if all developments must adhere to the maximum
limits. Parking restrictions that may seem to place urban areas at a disadvan-
tage can be offset by amenities other than parking, such as convenient access
to services and places of employment, attractive streetscapes, or pedestri-
an-friendly neighborhoods. City governments and developers should
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Parking Spaces/Community Places: Finding the Balance through Smart Growth Solutions
incorporate these elements to attract businesses and residents. Maximum
requirements are not ideal for all locations. Municipalities that employ maxi-
mum requirements must have accompanying accessible and frequent public
transportation. It is also important for the area to be sufficiently stable eco-
nomically to attract tenants without needing to provide a surplus of parking. A
number of cities have implemented maximum parking requirements, includ-
ing San Francisco and Seattle.
Shared Parking
Circle Centre — Indianapolis, Indiana
Opened in September 1995, Circle Centre in Indianapolis' cen-
tral business district offers retail and entertainment destina-
tions. This development contains 630,600 square feet of retail
space and100,000 square feet of restaurant, speciality, and
entertainment space, as well as a 2,700-seat cinema. One of
the factors that led to the financial success of this $300 mil-
lion project was a shared parking arrangement that saved
money and allowed a pedestrian-friendly design.
Under generic minimum parking requirements, Circle Centre
would have needed about 6,000 parking spaces. By using
shared parking, the project was built with just 2,815 spaces.
Shared parking for Circle Centre is used for both customers
and employees. The mixed-use nature of the development
project allows customers to use a single parking space for
multiple destinations within the complex. Employees can use
nearby off-site parking, particularly in evenings and on week-
ends when more than 12,000 nearby off-site spaces that nor-
mally serve downtown office workers become available. Tak-
ing these two shared parking components into account de-
creases the estimated need for on-site parking by more than
50 percent.
This reduction in parking demand translates into considerable
cost savings. At parking costs of about $10,000 per space for
aboveground structured parking, development costs were re-
duced by about $30 million.. In addition, operating costs were
reduced by approximately $1 million per year.
Source: Smith, 1996.
Shared Parking
The concept of shared parking is based on the simple idea that different
destinations attract customers, workers, and visitors during different times of
day. An office that has peak parking demand during the daytime, for exam-
ple, can share the same pool of parking spaces with a restaurant whose
demand peaks in the evening. The first shared parking programs arose when
developers, interested in reducing development costs, successfully argued
that they could accommodate all demand on site with a reduced number of
spaces. The Urban Land Institute (ULI) report Shared
Parking (2005) presented analytic methods for local gov-
ernments and developers to use on specific projects,
and as mixed-use projects continue to grow in number
and sophistication, ULI continues to update this meth-
odology.
By allowing for and encouraging shared parking, plan-
ners can decrease the total number of spaces required
for mixed-use developments or single-use developments
in mixed-use areas. Developers benefit, not only from
the decreased cost of development, but also from the
"captive markets" stemming from mixed-use develop-
ment. For example, office employees are a captive
market for business lunches at restaurants in mixed-
use developments.
Shared parking also allows for more efficient use of
land and better urban design, including walkability and
traffic flow. Shared parking encourages use of central-
ized parking lots or garages and discourages the
development of many scattered small facilities. A side-
walk with fewer driveway interruptions and more shop
fronts is more comfortable and interesting for pedestri-
ans and will encourage walking. Reducing driveways
also results in more efficient traffic flow because there
are fewer turning opportunities on main thoroughfares.
This has the added benefits of reducing accidents and
reducing emissions from idling vehicles stuck in traffic.
Establishing shared parking requirements involves
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Parking Spaces/Community Places: Finding the Balance through Smart Growth Solutions
site-specific assessment or use of time-of-day parking utilization curves, which
were developed by the ULI in Shared Parking. Planners need to consider
several factors when developing shared parking requirements, including the
physical layout of the development; the number of spaces for each of the
individual land uses; the types of parking users (e.g., employees, residents,
or hotel guests who park all day, or customers and visitors who park for short
periods of time); and hourly accumulation of parking for each land use.
Montgomery County, Maryland, allows for shared parking to meet mini-
mum parking requirements when any land or building under the same
ownership or under a joint-use agreement is used for two or more purposes.
The county's ordinance also allows parking reductions based on proximity to
transit, participation in TDM programs, or location in the central business
district. The county uses the following method to determine shared require-
Calculating Parking for Mixed-Use Developments
(Montgomery County, Maryland)
Office
Retail
Entertainment
TOTAL
* Peak demand by
Source: Smith 1983
Weekday Weekend
Daytime Evening Daytime Evening
(9 a.m. - (6 p.m. - (9 a.m. - (6 p.m. -
4 p.m.) 12 a.m.) 4 p.m.) 12 a.m.)
300* 30 30 15
168 252 280* 196
40 100* 80 100*
508 382 390 311
use.
, page 7.
Nighttime
(12 a.m. -
6 a.m.)
15
14
10
39
ments for mixed-use developments:
• Determine the minimum amount of parking required for each land
use as though it were a separate use, by time period;
• Calculate the total parking required across uses for each time pe-
riod; then
• Set the requirement at the maximum total across time periods.
The table above illustrates how peak demand occurs at different times of
the day and week for different land uses. While maximum parking demand for
the office component of the project occurs during the daytime on weekdays,
maximum demand for retail occurs during the daytime on weekends, and
peak entertainment demand is in the evening. For this example, setting park-
ing requirements using maximum demand would have resulted in requiring
680 spaces (300 spaces for office, 280 spaces for retail, and 100 spaces for
entertainment). By recognizing the shared parking potential, the developer
cut almost 200 unnecessary parking spaces (about 25 percent), represent-
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Parking Spaces/Community Places: Finding the Balance through Smart Growth Solutions
Centralized Parking
Chattanooga, Tennessee
To encourage urban development in downtown Chattanooga
while limiting congestion and air pollution, the Chattanooga
Area Regional Transit Authority (CARTA) developed a strat-
egy to provide peripheral parking and a free shuttle service.
The system is designed for the city's linear central business
district and allows workers and visitors to drive to the city,
park in one of the two peripheral garages, and use the shuttles
to travel up and down the 15-block business corridor. By con-
structing parking at either end of the business district, CARTA
intercepts commuters and visitors before they drive into and
through the city center, reducing traffic congestion.
The two parking garages Shuttle Park South (550 spaces)
and Shuttle Park North (650 spaces), are owned by CARTA
and operated privately. The free shuttle buses are financed
through the garages' parking revenues. They depart from each
garage every five minutes all day, every day, and pass within
walking distance of most downtown destinations.
The electric-powered shuttles transport approximately one mil-
lion riders each year, making shuttle-served property attrac-
tive to businesses. Since 1992, when the shuttle service be-
gan, over $400 million has been spent on development in Chat-
tanooga, including the successful aquarium, over 100 retail
shops and over 60 restaurants. CARTA's initiatives won com-
mendation from EPA, receiving a "Way to Go" award in 1996
for innovative transportation solutions that support urban de-
velopment.
Sources: EPA, 1998; Chattanooga News Bureau, 1999.
ing a considerable cost savings.
An American Planning Association report, Flexible Parking Requirements,
highlights factors that facilitate shared parking (Smith, 1983). The report sug-
gests that for shared parking to function effectively,
parking requirements for individual land uses must re-
flect peak-demand land use and common parking
facilities must be near one another. Parking spaces
should not be reserved for individuals or groups.
Centralized Parking Facilities and
Management
A subset of shared parking is the construction of cen-
tralized parking lots and garages. Some cities mandate
centralized parking facilities and finance them through
development impact fees, in lieu parking fees, or nego-
tiated contributions established during the environmental
review process. Centralized parking can be built and
operated by a public entity or public/private partnership
and reduce the costs of parking because large facilities
are less expensive on a per space basis to build and
maintain than small facilities. The example in the next
chapter of Wilton Manors, Florida, is such a case.
Centralized parking facilities can meet urban design
goals if they allow the elimination of small surface park-
ing lots and driveways that interrupt the walkable fabric
of mixed-use areas. Centralized parking enables travel-
ers to park once to visit several destinations, potentially
reducing on-street congestion from short trips within an
area. Developers are sometimes concerned that cen-
tralized parking will be inconvenient for building
occupants, but these concerns can be addressed in part
by building several "centralized" facilities throughout a
business district or mixed-use area. Centralized man-
agement can still ensure coordinated policies for their use, maintaining many
of the advantages of centralized parking. In other cases, the operator can
provide shuttle services to and from centralized garages. Many downtown
areas have successfully instituted centralized parking. Some cities, such as
Pittsburgh and Chattanooga (see box) operate such facilities at the periph-
ery of the downtown, reducing traffic and mobile source emissions in the
core and freeing up land in the center city for other development.
In-Lieu Parking Fees
In-lieu parking fees are one way to finance such centralized public garag-
es and give developers flexibility in providing parking on-site. Developers
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Parking Spaces/Community Places: Finding the Balance through Smart Growth Solutions
are able to avoid constructing parking on site by paying the city a fee, and
the city in return provides off-site parking that is available for use by the
development's tenants and visitors. The city determines the fees, generally
based on the cost of providing parking.
Cities set fees in one of two ways, either by calculating a flat fee for
parking spaces not provided by a developer on site, or by establishing devel-
opment-specific fees on a case-by-case basis. Shoup (2005) reports that
in-lieu fees in the United States range from $2,000 to $20,000 per parking
space and may or may not reflect the true costs of providing parking. These
fees can be imposed as a property tax surcharge or at the time of develop-
ment permitting.
In-lieu parking fees provide a mechanism for providing parking in balance
with other community goals, satisfying the public as well as planners and
developers. Using in-lieu fees and centralized garages can:
• Reduce overall construction costs;
• Avoid construction of awkward, unattractive on-
site parking that could compromise historic
buildings;
• Increase public access to convenient parking;
• Ensure that parking facilities will be used more
efficiently; and
• Encourage better urban design with streetscapes
uninterrupted by parking lots and driveways.
In establishing in-lieu parking fees, planners must be
aware of potential developers' concerns that the lack of
on-site parking will make developments less attractive
to tenants and visitors. This can be an issue if available
public parking is insufficient, inconveniently located, or
inefficiently operated. Planners must carefully consider
the parking demand for each participating property and
provide enough parking to meet this demand in order to
avoid creating a perceived or real parking shortage. Plan-
ners must also work to ensure that public parking
facilities are located and operated in ways that support
development.
In-Lieu Parking Fees
Coconut Grove — Miami, Florida
Coconut Grove is a pedestrian-oriented, entertainment, din-
ing, and shopping village in southern Miami. To maintain Co-
conut Grove's continuous street frontage and keep it attrac-
tive to pedestrians, city planners established flexible parking
requirements. Developers or property owners have three choices
for satisfying minimum parking requirements: they can pro-
vide off-street parking, contract spaces elsewhere, or pay in-
lieu fees. With little space left to develop and high land costs,
most property owners choose to pay the $50 per space per
month fee to the city and use the land for more productive,
revenue-generating purposes. The city uses the in-lieu fees to
provide shared, structured parking, improve transit service, and
maintain the sidewalks and pedestrian amenities. By invest-
ing the in-lieu fees in a combination of parking and other im-
provements, the city helps to keep Coconut Grove walkable
and maintain the attractive aesthetic character of the area.
Source: Coconut Grove Chamber of Commerce.
Accounting for Uncertainty
Estimating parking demand is not an exact science, and a few communi-
ties are setting aside land through land banking and landscape reserves that
can be converted into parking if shortages arise. Landscaping can often be
used to turn this set-aside land into an attractive amenity for the development
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Parking Spaces/Community Places: Finding the Balance through Smart Growth Solutions
or wider community, but requiring new development to purchase additional
land as insurance against uncertain parking demand imposes additional costs,
which may work against community redevelopment goals.
Land banking and landscape reserves are particularly useful policies when
the expected need for off-street parking for a particular use is uncertain, due
to unknown or unusual operating characteristics, or if
no data is available to establish need. Cities could re-
spond by requiring the construction of parking spaces
that may well sit empty. But these techniques allow
supply to be determined by the best estimates, with the
security that more parking can be constructed if need-
ed. In some cases, landscape reserves can be required
in conjunction with parking reductions granted in return
for company plans to reduce private vehicle trips, known
as Transportation Demand Management (TDM) plans.
If the employer falls out of compliance with the TDM
plan, they can be required to go to the expense of con-
structing additional parking.
Land Banking
Iowa City, Iowa, and Palo Alto, California
Both Iowa City and Palo Alto have enacted land-banking poli-
cies in their parking codes. In some neighborhood commer-
cial zones in Iowa City, minimum parking requirements may
be waived or relaxed, and land banking used in place of up to
30 percent of the otherwise required parking. If an enforce-
ment official determines in the future that the additional park-
ing spaces are needed, the property owner can be required to
construct parking on the land banked area.
Palo Alto's code authorizes the city to defer up to 50 percent
of the required spaces as a landscape reserve where the ex-
pected need for off-street parking for a particular development
is uncertain. The California Park Apartments development, for
example, was allowed to defer 22 of the 95 parking spaces
required by city code, using the land instead for a family play
lot, a barbeque area, and picnic benches. Nearly 15 years
after construction, the landscape reserve has not been need-
ed for parking, and the community enjoys the environmental
and social benefits of the recreation area.
Source: Iowa City and Palo Alto Zoning and Parking Codes.
Land banking and landscape reserve policies have
been implemented in cities throughout Oregon (includ-
ing Portland), as well as Palo Alto, California; Carmel,
California; Cleveland; and Iowa City, Iowa. Palo Alto al-
lows reductions of up to 50 percent in minimum parking
requirements, provided that the difference is made up
through a landscape reserve. None of the city's land-
scaped reserves have subsequently been required for
parking.
To avoid confusion with terminology, it should be noted that land banking
can also refer to the purchase of land by a local government or developer for
use or resale at a later date. Banked land is sometimes used as interim
parking to generate revenue generation—parking fees from temporary lots
are put towards construction of later phases of the development, and at some
point built over into buildings or structured parking.
Manage Demand
While reducing excess parking supply is important in eliminating the waste
of unused parking spaces, some communities are looking to directly reduce
the demand for parking, by providing people with readily available alterna-
tives to driving. Demand reduction programs include car sharing, subsidies
for transit, transit improvements, pedestrian and bicycle facilities, and com-
prehensive vehicle trip reduction programs that may include telecommuting
and/or flexible work schedules to reduce commuting. While these programs
are typically developed by local governments, their success often depends
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Parking Spaces/Community Places: Finding the Balance through Smart Growth Solutions
on the commitment of businesses to implement them effectively.
Car-Sharing
Car-sharing is a neighborhood-based, short-term vehicle rental service
that makes cars easily available to residents on a pay-per-use basis. Mem-
bers have access to a common fleet of vehicles, parked throughout
neighborhoods so they are within easy walking distance, or at transit sta-
tions. In programs with the most advanced technology, members simply
reserve the nearest car via telephone or the Internet, walk to its reserved
space, open the door using an electronic card, and drive off. They are billed
at the end of the month, gaining most of the benefits of a private car without
the costs and responsibilities of ownership, and without having to search for
parking when their trip is over.
In urban neighborhoods with good transit access, car-sharing can elimi-
nate the need to own a vehicle, particularly a second or third car that is
driven less than 10,000 miles per year. In San Francisco, nearly 60 percent
of households that owned vehicles before joining the car-sharing program
have given up at least one of them
within a year, and another 13 per-
cent were considering it
(Nelson\Nygaard, 2002). Zipcar,
which operates in Boston, New York,
and Washington, DC, reports that 15
percent of members sell their private
car. In Europe, which has a far long-
er experience with car-sharing, each
shared vehicle takes between four
and ten private cars off the road ~
and out of city parking spaces (City
of Bremen, 2002).
In some cities, developers have
been allowed to reduce the number
of parking spaces if they incorpo-
rate car-sharing. Developers may
need to contribute towards set-up
costs and/or provide parking spac-
es reserved for car-sharing vehicles
as part of a project. Car-sharing can
be provided as part of a mitigation
agreement with the local jurisdiction
in return for a reduction in minimum
parking requirements. Alternatively, the parking reduction can be codified
through zoning ordinances, as is being considered in Portland, Oregon, San
Francisco, and Seattle.
Car-Sharing, Pricing Strategies
Van Ness and Turk Development — San Francisco, California
This development includes 141 residential units in a dense area of San Francisco,
with only 51 parking spaces. The development was granted a substantial reduction in
parking requirements—nearly two-thirds—from the city's minimum of 1 space per
unit, to 1 space per 2.8 units. The reduction was granted in large part because of the
developers' agreement to provide two parking spaces for car-sharing operator City
CarShare, accessible to residents and all CarShare members. Strong community
and organizational support, as well as proximity to major transit corridors, were also
factors.
If the developers had been required to build the additional 90 spaces required by code,
they would have been forced to add either subterranean levels or parking lifts, which
save space by stacking vehicles on top of each other. These expensive options would
have cost between $1.35 million for lift technology (estimated at $15,000 per space)
or $8.1 million for additional below-grade parking levels (estimated at $60,000 to
$90,000 per space).
The developer also "unbundled," parking costs, so that residents are charged for park-
ing separately from rent. The current market rate for parking is $280 to $300 per
space per month. By charging separately for parking and incurring lower construction
costs, the developer is able to keep apartment rents lower.
Source: Thieophilos Developers, 2002.
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Parking Spaces/Community Places: Finding the Balance through Smart Growth Solutions
Car-sharing can also be a useful tool to reduce parking demand in com-
mercial developments. Employees can use a shared vehicle for meetings
and errands during the workday, allowing them to take transit, carpool, walk,
or bicycle to work. Car-sharing works best in compact, mixed-use neighbor-
hoods, where firms with corporate memberships tend to use the vehicles
during the day and residents can use them in the evenings and on week-
ends.
Formal car-sharing programs have been established in many cities, in-
cluding Boston; Washington, DC; San Francisco; Oakland, California; Portland,
Oregon; Seattle; and Boulder, Colorado, and are being established in many
others. Some programs are run by non-profits with significant government
support. Private for-profit companies, notably Flexcar and Zipcar, are operat-
ing in a number of cities, but they often work with the city or the local transit
agency to secure reserved parking spaces on city streets or in transit park-
and-ride lots. Alternatively, developers can provide shared vehicles
themselves, or facilitate informal car-sharing among residents. Car-sharing
reduces parking demand, but it also brings a broad range of other benefits,
including fewer vehicle trips with less associated pollution, and improved
mobility for low-income households who may not be able to afford to own a
car, if rental rates are low enough..
Incentives for Transit
Financial incentives to ride transit can help reduce parking demand. They
can be provided by employers, by cities, or by residential property managers.
Car-Sharing, Parking Maximums
Rich Sorro Commons — San Francisco, California
Plans for Mission Bay, a 303-acre brownfield redevelopment area in San Francisco, include 6,000 units of housing, office space,
university facilities, a hotel, community services, and retail. The city introduced parking maximums in this area to maximize the amount
of new housing, make the most of the new Third Street Light Rail line through the neighborhood, and minimize traffic impacts on
congested streets and the nearby freeway. Residential parking maximums were set at one space per unit.
One of the first projects completed was Rich Sorro Commons, a mixed-use project with 100 affordable units and approximately 10,000
square feet of ground floor retail. It was constructed with only 85 parking spaces, due to:
• Excellent proximity to light rail, commuter rail, and frequent bus service;
• Provision of two parking spaces for City CarShare; and
• Units below market rate, with tenants who are less likely to own a car.
With fewer parking spaces, Rich Sorro Commons was able to make space available for a childcare center and retail stores at ground
level. The 17 would-be parking spaces were converted to retail space that is expected to generate revenues of $132,000 annually for the
project (300 square feet per space at $25.80 per square foot in rent), making housing more affordable. The two City CarShare vehicles
are available to residents, giving them access to a car without the costs of ownership - a particularly important benefit for low-income
households.
Source: Kenneth Jones, Developer, 2002.
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Parking Spaces/Community Places: Finding the Balance through Smart Growth Solutions
In the case of employer-paid transit pass plans, the employer pays the
cost of employees' transit, often instead of providing a free parking space.
This fringe benefit for employees reduces the demand for parking at the
workplace, which in turn reduces traffic, air pollution, and energy consump-
tion. It can equalize the transportation benefit that traditionally only went to
employees who drove to work and received a free parking space. It also
reduces costs, as transit benefits are generally less expensive to employers
than providing parking. A transit pass in Los Angeles, for example, costs $42
per month, whereas the average cost for a parking space is $91 per month
(Shoup, 1997b). To promote transit subsidies, the 1998 Transportation Equi-
ty Act for the 21st Century changed federal law so that transit benefits are not
counted as payroll or as income (see also the description of cash-out pro-
grams on page 31). In some cases, city planners respond to employer-paid
transit benefits by lowering minimum parking requirements. For example Mont-
gomery County, Maryland's office zoning requirements allows a 15 percent
reduction in minimum parking requirements if businesses offer reimbursed
transit passes (Smith, 1983). The reduction in required parking can make
urban development opportunities more inviting.
Transit incentives can also be useful for residential developments, or even
for neighborhoods.. Property managers in Boulder, Colorado, and Santa Clara
County, California, for example, can bulk-purchase transit passes for all their
Courtesy of City Car Share
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Parking Spaces/Community Places: Finding the Balance through Smart Growth Solutions
residents at deeply discounted rates. The principle is similar to that of insur-
ance—transit agencies can offer lower rates on passes because not all
residents will actually use them regularly. Residents can take transit for free,
meaning they are less likely to own a vehicle. Another benefit of prepaid
transit programs is that they encourage residents to take transit spontane-
ously, since costs are paid up-front. A person does not have to commit to
transit full-time in order to be able
to reduce their demand for vehi-
cle travel and parking.
Developers who agree to fund
transit passes can thus be re-
warded with lower parking
Using Parking Revenue to Support Transit
Boulder, Colorado
Faced with a shortage of parking for customers, Boulder developed a program to encourage
downtown employees to commute by other means. In 1993, Boulder's City Council mandated
restricted downtown parking and appealed for parking demand management for the city's
commuters.
The Central Area General Improvement District (CAGID), made up of many of downtown's 700
businesses, responded to the Boulder City Council's demands by creating a system using
revenue from downtown parking meters to pay for free bus passes. The passes are provided
for all of the district's 7,500 employees, and cost $500,000 each year The program has
changed travel behavior, freeing up valuable customer parking spaces:
• Employee carpooling increased from 35 percent in 1993 to 47 percent in 1997.
• The district's employees require 850 fewer parking spaces.
• The increase in available parking has encouraged more retail customers to shop in
downtown Boulder.
Boulder has created a special website with information about parking issues in the region:
http://bouldeq3arking.com.
The City of Boulder offers deeply discounted Eco-Passesto businesses outside the CAGID
and to residents, and encourages walking and bicyccling. These programs mean Boulder
employees avoid 212,500 single-occupancy vehicle trips per year, saving an estimated two
million miles of pollution- and congestion-causing automobile trips, use is prevented each
year.
Source : Boulder Community Network, 1999.
requirements.
Transit Improvements
One of the best ways to re-
duce the demand for parking is
to improve transit service so that
it is frequent, convenient, and
easy to use. Local government
officials can improve public tran-
sit through major projects, such
as adding light rail lines or street-
cars, or creating systems that
give buses priority at lights and
intersections. They can also
lengthen transit service hours, in-
crease the frequency of bus and
train service, and revitalize tran-
sit stations. Small improvements can also help, such as convenient SmartCard
payment systems, improved bus stops and shelters, and real-time directional
and schedule information systems. Portland, Oregon's MAX light rail system
exemplifies the widespread benefits of transit improvements. The light rail
system encourages transit-oriented development, decreases automobile com-
muting, and eases demand for parking. In fact, the light rail improvements
eliminated the need for six downtown parking towers (EPA, 1998). These
improvements are also partially responsible for $1.3 billion in new develop-
ment in Portland over the last 10 years.
Pedestrian and Bicycle Facilities
Demand for parking can be reduced by providing pedestrian and bicycle
facilities and amenities that make it easier and more pleasant for people to
walk or bicycle to work, on errands, or to lunch. These changes can alleviate
traffic congestion; for example, the automobile-dependent design of Tyson's
Corner, Virginia, has resulted in high volumes of traffic at lunch time because
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Parking Spaces/Community Places: Finding the Balance through Smart Growth Solutions
people cannot walk to restaurants or to run errands.
Promoting bicycling and walking can be accomplished through both com-
prehensive policies and simple changes to the street. Some jurisdictions
have adopted 'complete streets' policies that require every road construction
or improvement project to provide safe access for everyone using the road,
including transit users, bicyclists, and pedestrians (see
www.completestreets.org). Other communities have focused on closing gaps
in the sidewalk or bikeway network, by adding sections of sidewalks, bike
lanes, or multi-use paths where needed to ensure safe travel by those modes.
In addition to paying attention to the street, bicycling
and walking can be encouraged through design chang-
es that make walking and bicycling more secure and
pleasant. The Downtown Master Plan for Kendall, Flor-
ida (Miami-Dade County), discusses several design
concepts to improve pedestrian and bicycle access.
Some of the key elements promoted, but not required,
by this program are listed in the text box to the right.
Developers can also encourage bicycling and walk-
ing by providing on-site facilities such as bicycle racks
and even lockers and showers. For example, officials
in Schaumburg, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, have in-
corporated provisions into their zoning ordinance to
encourage bicycle use. The ordinance requires all re-
tail centers to have a minimum of 10 bicycle spaces
located at each main building entrance. To increase
awareness, the ordinance requires that bike racks be
highly visible; to protect bicyclists, the ordinance requires
bicycle parking areas to be separated from automobile
parking. Otherjurisdictions require covered, secure bi-
cycle parking for employees who will be leaving their
bicycles all day.
Travel Demand Management (TDM) Programs
Travel demand management (TDM) programs com-
bine several trip-reduction strategies to meet explicit
travel goals. Some TDM programs are put into place by a single employer;
others are managed by governments or business improvement districts and
focus on a developed area that may include both businesses and homes.
These programs typically attempt to decrease the number of trips by single-
occupant vehicles, sometimes setting goals such as reduced vehicle trips or
reduced miles traveled, while increasing the use of a variety of commuting
and travel alternatives, including transit, carpooling, walking, and bicycling.
TDM plans can be used by city planners to allow developers to build fewer
parking spaces.
Designing for Pedestrians
Kendall, Florida
Close attention to design can dramatically improve the envi-
ronment for pedestrians. The city of Kendall, Florida, has
started to redevelop a conventional mall near a rail station
into a new town center. The Downtown Master Plan speci-
fies a number of improvements to create a compact, walkable
place with good connections to existing neighborhoods:
• Bicycle/pedestrian access via new sidewalks and
pathways.
• Trees and shrubs along edges facing streets and
sidewalks.
• Parking hidden in the rear or in parking garages.
• Shade and rain protection for pedestrians, such
as colonnades, arcades, marquees, second-floor
balconies, wide awnings, or tree canopies.
• Buildings positioned along the sidewalks at a de-
liberate alignment, giving a designed shape to the
public space.
• Doors and windows spaced at close intervals to
generate activity, direct views to merchandise, and
make walking interesting.
• Minimal number of driveways and parking lot en-
tries that can making walking unsafe and erode
urban space.
Source: Downtown Master Plan, Kendall, Florida, 1998.
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Parking Spaces/Community Places: Finding the Balance through Smart Growth Solutions
TDM programs may encourage transit incentives, parking cash-out, and
other strategies mentioned here. In addition, these programs typically incor-
porate an assortment of complementary program elements that make it easier
for people to give up solo driving. Examples include:
• "Guaranteed ride home" services that allow employees who use
public transit to get a free ride home (usually via taxi) if they miss
their bus or if they need to stay at work late.
• Company fleet cars
that can be used for busi-
ness meetings or running
errands during the work-
day
Shared Parking, Transit Improvements, TDM Program
Lindbergh City Center-Atlanta, Georgia
The Lindbergh City Center is a mixed-use, high-density development in Atlanta on property owned
by the transit agency, MARTA. The project was envisioned with a goal of having transit carry 30
percent of all trips to and from the center. The development, which includes a hotel and restau-
rant as well as office, retail, and residential space, centers on a MARTA light rail station that
connects it to downtown Atlanta, the airport, and other areas. Parking reductions were allowed
because of shared parking between office and retail uses, because of the ample transit access,
and as a result of the Transportation Demand Management programs. Parking requirements for
the first phase of the development were reduced by 20 percent overall; for office space the reduc-
tion is as high as 70 percent. Condominiums are allowed an 8 percent reduction, from 2 to 1.85
spaces per unit.
Source: Paul Vespermann, Lindbergh City Center, 2002.
m Preferential and/or
reserved parking for van-
pools/carpools.
• Carpooling and/or
vanpooling with ride-
matching service. Ride
matching through infor-
mal "ride boards" or an
employee transportation
coordinator, helps people
find and form carpools
with neighbors.
• Cell phones for carpoolers to facilitate timing of pick-ups.
Employers have little incentive to implement vehicle trip reduction pro-
grams if they are not granted reductions in minimum parking requirements.
They would not be able to realize the potential cost savings from providing
less parking, but would simply be faced with a large number of empty spac-
es. Some cities, such as South San Francisco (see box), have acknowledged
this through ordinances that reduce parking requirements for projects that
include vehicle trip reduction programs.
Pricing Strategies
Although parking is often provided at no charge to the user, it is never
free. Each space in a parking structure can cost upwards of $2,500 per year
in maintenance, operations, and the amortization of land and construction
costs. Even on-street spaces incur maintenance costs and an opportunity
cost in forgone land value. These costs end up hidden in rental fees and
even in the costs of goods and services. Donald Shoup, Professor of Urban
Planning at UCLA, has published extensively on parking policy in the United
States. He believes that accurately pricing parking would solve many park-
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Parking Spaces/Community Places: Finding the Balance through Smart Growth Solutions
ing problems (Shoup,
2005).
Travel Demand Management Ordinance
South San Francisco, California
South San Francisco is one of the few cities in the U.S. to enact a citywide Transportation Demand
Management (TDM) ordinance, which allows reduced parking requirements for projects meeting
TDM requirements. The ordinance applies to all nonresidential developments that expect to gener-
ate 100 or more average daily trips, or to projects seeking a floor area ratio (FAR) bonus. Parking
reductions are not fixed, but are subject to case-by-case review and depend on the number and
extent of TDM elements.
For example, the brownfield, mixed-use Bay West Cove development, which is located close to
transit and bus service, was able to reduce required parking by 10 percent by implementing the
following TDM strategies:
Free parking for carpools and vanpools.
Late-night taxi service and feedershuttle service.
Transit subsidy of $25 per month for all tenant employees.
Late-night taxi service and feedershuttle service.
Guaranteed ride home program.
Provision of a transportation coordinator.
On-site project amenities such as child care, showers and lockers, electric vehicle charging,
bicycle storage facilities, and a transit information kiosk.
• Parking charges of at least $20 per month for employee parking spaces.
Developers can use the savings from reduced parking construction and the income from paid park-
ing to offset or cover the costs of implementing such programs.
Source: City of South San Francisco, 2003.
The cost of parking is
generally subsumed into
lease fees or sale prices.
However, providing any-
thing for free or at highly
subsidized rates encour-
ages overuse and means
that more parking spaces
have to be provided.
Charging users for parking
is a market-based ap-
proach that passes the true
cost of parking to users,
and encourages use of
other transportation
modes. If the fee charged
to users of parking facili-
ties is sufficient to cover
construction, operation,
and maintenance costs, it
may encourage some us-
ers to seek alternative
transport modes. Even where there are few alternatives to driving, parking
pricing can encourage employees to seek out carpooling partners. In addi-
tion to reducing the cost of parking provision, pricing strategies bring
substantial environmental and congestion benefits, particularly since they
tend to reduce peak-period vehicle trips the most.
However, free parking is an ingrained American tradition. An estimated 99
percent (Shoup, 2005) of parking in the United States is free. How can
paying for parking ever be a good thing for drivers? Drivers are willing to pay
for parking that is more convenient and readily available. For example, on-
street spaces near shopping destinations are much more likely to be available
to customers if priced and regulated to prioritize short stays ~ if they are
free, they will be used for all-day parking by employees or residents. For
residents, separating the cost of parking from the cost of rent or a mortgage
provides an economic benefit to those who choose to own fewer cars. In
addition, the revenue generating from putting an accurate value on parking
can be used to benefit an entire neighborhood.
For commuters, making the cost of parking part of the decision on how to
get to work encourages transit use and other alternatives, reducing traffic
congestion. Parking charges have been found to reduce employee vehicle
trips, and thus daily parking demand, by between 7 percent and 30 percent
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Parking Spaces/Community Places: Finding the Balance through Smart Growth Solutions
or more, depending on factors such as the level of charges and the availabil-
ity of alternatives to driving alone. One researcher has calculated that each 1
percent rise in parking fees is accompanied by a 0.3 percent decrease in
demand (Pratt, 2000).
Cities and developers are using a variety of pricing strategies to better
balance parking demand and supply. They include parking cash-out pro-
grams, pricing that prioritizes certain types of trips, residential parking plans,
and parking benefit districts.
Cash-Out Programs
Cash-out programs allow employees to choose a transportation benefit,
rather than simply accepting the traditional free parking space. Under such
programs, employers offer employees the choice of:
• Free or subsidized parking,
• A transit or vanpool subsidy equal to the value of the parking (of
which up to $100 per month is tax-free under current federal law), or
• A taxable payment approximately equal to the value of the parking,
essentially cash to commuters who bicycle or walk to work.
Employees who opt for the non-parking subsidies are not eligible to re-
ceive free parking from the employer and are responsible for their parking
charges on days when they drive to work. The cost savings for employers
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Parking Spaces/Community Places: Finding the Balance through Smart Growth Solutions
associated with cash-out payments depend on the amount of the payments.
If the full cash equivalent is provided, this demand reduction program does
not reduce the total costs of providing parking. However, employees may
accept cash payments lower than the full equivalent of the parking subsidy. If
partial cash payments are used, employers face lower overall transportation
subsidy costs, and employees still benefit. The programs help end the ineq-
uity of providing a free parking space benefit to drivers, while offering nothing
to those who choose to arrive via transit, foot, or bicycle.
Cash-out programs are often easier to implement than direct charges, as
they are generally more acceptable to employees, particularly when free park-
ing had been the norm. However, their impact on travel behavior is usually
lower, due to the administrative burden on employees, inertia in changing
travel habits, and the fact that cash-out payments can be a taxable benefit
whereas free parking is not.
Cash-out programs provide significant environmental, social, and eco-
nomic benefits. For example, in response to
California's mandatory cash-out requirement, eight
firms reported an average 17 percent reduction in
the total number of solo drivers (Shoup, 1997a).
Thus, another benefit of cash-out programs is a re-
duction in traffic congestion and associated pollution.
Cash-Out Program
Santa Monica, California
Prioritizing Trips
Parking pricing can be a tool to prioritize some
types of trips over others, according to their pur-
pose and duration. It allows managers to cater to
certain users, such as short-term shoppers, while
discouraging other users, such as commuters, who
add to peak-hour congestion and occupy a parking
space for an entire day. These pricing strategies
allow the overall supply of parking to be minimized,
while ensuring spaces are available for critical us-
ers. They can also alleviate pressure to provide more parking from retailers
and businesses, who may be concerned that lack of parking discourages
shoppers. For example:
• Low prices for short-term parking encourages shopping trips, and
limiting the duration of parking can also support these high-turnover
trips. For example, charging $0.25 per hour with a two-hour maxi-
mum will allow many people to use a single space over the course
of a day. The same space priced at $2.50 for up to ten hours will
likely serve a single commuter. The parking revenue might be the
same, but the sales for businesses and sales tax for the city will
likely be much higher with short-term parking.
In 1992, California instituted a mandatory cash-out program. The
California Health and Safety Code Section 43834 reads, "'Parking
cash-out program' meansan employer-funded program underwhich
an employer offers to provide a cash allowance to an employee
equivalent to the parking subsidy that the employer would other-
wise pay to provide the employee with a parking space."
The effects of the cash-out program on transportation use in Santa
Monica have been significant. A study conducted by Donald Shoup
of the UCLA found that for two Santa Monica employers, the share
of solo commuters decreased by between 7 and 8 percent once the
cash-out program was in place. This reduction in solo commuters
is responsible for a decrease in annual commuting of 858 vehicle
miles (Shoup, 1997a).
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Parking Spaces/Community Places: Finding the Balance through Smart Growth Solutions
Parking charges that are levied by the hour or day, with no dis-
counts for monthly parking, remove the incentive to drive every day
to "get your money's worth" from the monthly parking pass.
Parking charges at transit stations that only apply before a certain
time (such as 9:00 am) encourage users to ride transit when it is
less crowded, rather than contributing to crowding in the peak.
Sophisticated new parking meters can charge visitors a different
rate than residents or employees with parking permits, preserving
parking for regular users while maximizing revenue from occasional
users.
Residential Parking Pricing
Parking charges can also be introduced at residential developments,
through separating or "unbundling" the cost of parking from rents or sale
prices. Rather than being provided with a set number of spaces whether they
need them or not, residents can choose how many spaces they wish to pur-
chase or rent. An alternative to direct charges is to provide "rent rebates" or
discounts to residents who own fewer vehicles and do not use their allocated
parking spaces.
In many urban areas with limited off-
street parking, curb parking is reserved
for residents through residential park-
ing permit programs. In most cases
these programs give residents free or
very inexpensive curb parking permits
and prohibit anyone else from parking
there. However, this can leave many
spaces unused during the day when
nearby businesses could use extra park-
ing. A few communities, including Aspen
Colorado and Tucson Arizona, are ex-
perimenting with allowing businesses to
buy permits in these areas at very high
rates, or are charging hourly parking
fees (Shoup, 2005). The revenue gen-
erated can be used to benefit the
neighborhood, in one version of a park-
ing benefit district, as described below.
Parking Benefit Districts
The revenue from parking can be
used to directly benefit the street or the
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Parking Spaces/Community Places: Finding the Balance through Smart Growth Solutions
neighborhood where the money is collected. Parking benefit districts receive
the revenue from meters and residential permits within the district. Once ad-
ministrative costs are covered, all money goes to transportation and
neighborhood improvements such as undergrounding of utility wires (Shoup,
1995), regular street and sidewalk cleaning, installation of benches, nice light-
ing, or other amenities. Parking benefit districts can allow new development
to use available on-street and other spaces, while addressing potential ca-
pacity problems through market pricing of curb and off-street parking.
Earmarking revenue to directly benefit the neighborhood or commercial dis-
trict helps to generate support for charges from local residents and businesses,
who might otherwise resist paying for parking that used to be free. Often,
local residents or businesses have a say in how the newly available revenue
will be spent.
The most common use of Parking Benefit Districts has been in downtown
business districts, usually using parking meter revenue. Cities such as San
Diego and Pasadena, California, have implemented such districts. The con-
cept also applies to residential areas. Most residential parking permit
programs give residents free or very inexpensive curb parking permits and
prohibit anyone else from parking there. However, this can leave many
spaces unused during the day when nearby businesses could use extra park-
ing, and neighborhoods could certainly use the revenue that could be generated
by charging for street parking.. A few communities, including Aspen Colorado
and Tucson Arizona, are experimenting with allowing businesses to buy per-
mits in these areas at very high rates, or are charging hourly parking fees
(Shoup, 2005). Furthermore, this concept can be refined based on the neigh-
borhood. For example, a neighborhood adjacent to an institution such as a
hospital or university might implement a two-tiered residential permit pro-
gram. Residents could buy permits at one rate, while excess on-street capacity
would be sold at market value to non-residents.
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Case Studies
This section presents case studies that illustrate how
specific metropolitan areas have benefited from innovative
parking alternatives. Little data has been collected comparing the
effectivness of various parking strategies, and much cost data is proprietary
and not available for analysis. Therefore, these examples are presented to
illustrate the ways that parking strategies are being used in real-word set-
tings to help communities balance parking and other goals.
• Portland, Oregon: Parking policies include maximums, location- and
use-specific requirements, shared parking entitlements, car-shar-
ing, and vehicle trip reduction or Transportation Demand
Management (TDM) measures. The Hilton Hotel and the Buckman
Heights and Buckman Terrace apartments have used these poli-
cies to alter their parking mix..
• Arlington County, Virginia: Location- and use-specific standards and
vehicle trip reduction strategies were used to reduce parking re-
quirements in two developments, the Market Common and the 1801
North Lynn Street commercial development.
• NASA Research Park, Santa Clara County, California: A large mixed-
use development illustrates vehicle trip reduction
strategies
• The Shoppes of Wilton Manors, Wilton Manors, Flor-
ida: This case illustrates how shared parking
arrangements can be used to reduce parking require-
ments for a mixed-use redevelopment in one of the
fastest growing areas of the country.
• SAFECO Insurance Company Expansion, Redmond,
Washington: SAFECO responded to the state's trans-
portation demand management requirements with an
effective vehicle trip reduction program.
• The D'Orsay Hotel, Long Beach, California: This case
illustrates how a downtown parking management plan
that allows shared parking and in lieu parking fees
can reduce development costs and put scarce land
to productive use.
These six case studies were chosen to highlight the
range and depth of parking alternatives, including those
created for a specific development basis and those written
into code. The case studies include some description of
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Parking Spaces/Community Places: Finding the Balance through Smart Growth Solutions
outcomes, including parking costs and development decisions; support for
compact, mixed-use, walkable communities; and other goals. As city and
county jurisdictions, Portland and Arlington have innovative approaches to
managing their transportation systems, including parking, and the case studies
illustrate how these policies affect specific developments.. Arlington County
is an example of code-based parking reduction strategies—it encourages
reduced parking primarily through lowered minimum requirements. Portland,
on the other hand, has a varied toolbox of strategies to offer developers to
reduce parking. In other cases, specific developments took the initiative to
go against development trends in reducing parking.to achieve broader goals,
such as the NASA development in California. For the Wilton Manors (Flori-
da) and D'Orsay Hotel (California) cases, the lowered cost associated with
parking alternatives was a key element that allowed the projects to be built in
a way that satisfied multiple goals of the community and developers. The
parking alternatives can also provide directly documentable environmental
benefits: SAFECO's use of transportation management measures and devel-
opment design, limited air emissions associated with automobile commuting
and protected water quality. Parking alternatives used for The Shoppes of
Wilton Manors and D'Orsay Hotel developments facilitated these infill projects,
thus preventing additional sprawl and the associated air and water quality
impacts.
Innovative Parking Policies:
Portland, Oregon
Innovative Parking Policies
Portland, Oregon
Portland has adopted a range of parking policies to promote infill
development and balance driving and alternatives to the private car,
including:
• No minimum parking requirements in the central city;
• Parking maximums in most neighborhoods, including
downtown;
• Transferable parking rights in areas with parking maxi-
mums;
• Reductions from typical minimum requirements for car-
sharing vehicles;
• Reductions from typical minimum requirements for vehi-
cle trip reduction strategies, such as transit access and
bicycle parking;
• Context-specific standards; and
• Provisions for shared parking.
Portland, Oregon, has introduced several innovative planning policies (list-
ed in the box on this page) to balance transportation needs with environmental
protection, community design, affordable housing,
and other goals. The two developments profiled
below are just a sample of the numerous projects
that have taken advantage of the city's parking re-
duction policies to achieve economic, environmental,
and social benefits. Others, in brief, include:
• Stadium Station Apartments: 115 affordable
apartments, with parking at 0.6 spaces per unit.
Of the 40 units already leased, only one-third of
households own automobiles. Despite already
low parking ratios, 50 percent of the parking re-
mains unused at full occupancy.
• Orenco Station and La Salle Apartments:
Both have parking reductions to 1.8 spaces per
unit and provide transit pass allowances to resi-
dents. This has achieved a large increase in
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Parking Spaces/Community Places: Finding the Balance through Smart Growth Solutions
transit ridership among occupants.
• Collins Circle, Center Commons, and Russellville Commons Apart-
ments: each is able to serve residents with a combination of transit
access, walkability, and fewer than one parking space per unit
Hilton Hotel
The Hilton Executive Tower Hotel and garage, developed by Melvin Mark
Companies, is in the heart of the Portland downtown business district, within
the Free Transit Zone. Constructed on a block that was the former home to
the Greyhound bus terminal, the 20-story, 440,000-square-foot project con-
sists of 312 hotel rooms, conference space, 20,000 square feet of ground-floor
retail, and 680 parking spaces. The Hilton Hotel is the owner of the hotel
portion of the project, and a Melvin Mark partnership owns the parking struc-
ture. Under the Portland zoning code, the maximum allowed parking for the
development would have been 380 spaces—312 hotel spaces, plus 68 growth
spaces for the retail.
The developers recognized that unmet demand for parking existed in Port-
land, but not primarily from hotel visitors. They sought to make the new park-
ing available to other users, which would make it more efficiently used (and
profitable) than if it were restricted to hotel use. They were able to accommo-
date needs of the new development and surrounding uses by building 680
spaces — more parking than downtown Portland parking maximums allow.
This case study illustrates not only the benefits of shared parking, but that
parking maximums combined with transferable parking entitlements can in-
crease the value of real estate and development.
Under the Portland zoning code, the maximum allowed parking for the
development would have been 380 spaces—312 hotel spaces, plus 68 growth
spaces for the retail. These maximums are lower than both the parking
generation rates published by the Institute of Transportation Engineers, and
the minimums adopted by most cities. The maximums for new office and
retail development downtown are one space per 1,000 square feet; for ho-
tels, the maximum is one space per room.
The city views the parking maximum as an "entitlement." New develop-
ments can either build the parking "entitlement" (the maximum parking allowed)
or can transfer those spaces to another development, as long as the transfer
contract is signed before the foundation is laid. Buildings that choose not to
build the parking they are entitled to, or historic buildings constructed before
parking became an issue, are granted an entitlement of 0.7 spaces per 1,000
square feet—70 percent of the parking entitled to new construction—which
they can transfer to other developments at any time. Transferred rights are
generally not sold, but are granted under certain rules that allow the project
delivering the parking rights to reserve use of some of the spaces - but at
market rates paid to the development that built the parking.
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Parking Spaces/Community Places: Finding the Balance through Smart Growth Solutions
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Courtesy ofMelvin Mark Companies
In addition to parking limits, the city also has created three different types
of parking spaces applicable to the Hilton Hotel development:
• Hotel spaces: By code, these spaces may only be sold to hotel
users (guests or visitors) between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 6:00
p.m., weekdays. If the hotel is in a slow season, or if not all hotel
visitors want parking, the remaining parking spaces go unused—a
potential financial liability.
• Growth spaces: These are the spaces entitled to new develop-
ment. They have no constraints and can be sold however the
developer sees fit.
• Preservation spaces: These are spaces generally entitled to old-
er and historic buildings that were constructed without parking. They
are more restrictive than growth spaces; if they are not used by
building occupants, they can only be sold to other cash users on a
daily or hourly basis.
The Hilton project combined these two policies - the
transferable rights and the categorization of parking spac-
es - to build enough spaces to serve both the hotel and
surrounding developments. The spaces built include:
• 100 hotel spaces allowed under the zoning code,
but restricted to use by hotel visitors (only 30 percent of
their entitlement in this category).
• 68 growth spaces allowed for the retail space un-
der the zoning code (100 percent of their entitlement).
• 512 spaces by transferring the parking entitlement
from nearby buildings and new projects:
• 200 growth spaces transferred from a concurrent
project, the 250,000 -square-foot Pioneer Place mall. The
project wanted the parking to attract customers, but did not
want to assume development costs or lose retail density on
the site to parking.
• 312 preservation spaces transferred from seven build-
ings in the area. Most of these were office buildings built at
a time when parking was not included.
Transferable parking rights made the Hilton/Melvin Mark development fi-
nancially beneficial to all parties involved. The Hilton project would not have
been feasible had its developers not been able to get the additional parking
spaces and the flexibility to manage parking. As a major revenue component,
the transfer of parking entitlements allowed the developers to secure funding
from lenders. Prior to development, they were able to sell 500 monthly park-
ing passes to managers of the buildings from which they had obtained
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Parking Spaces/Community Places: Finding the Balance through Smart Growth Solutions
preservation space rights. Like pre-leasing an office building, this
committed revenue helped in obtaining financing. The additional
parking and more flexible preservation and growth parking spaces
also reduced risk and seasonal fluctuations that the code's "hotel
use" parking constraints present. The garage operates with day-to-
day averages of 85 to 90 percent occupancy from being able to sell
to many different users—a major source of revenue for the project.
Transferable parking entitlements retains the advantages of
maximum parking requirements, such as reduced vehicle trips and
reduced land area devoted to parking, while creating flexibility and
a potential for profit that attracts major developments to the area. In
this way, transferable parking entitlements help to reinforce the eco-
nomic health of the central city, and important goal in the Portland
region. Downtown development ensures that the city of Portland
retains its property tax base, promotes an active and pedestrian-
friendly downtown with multiple amenities, and produces more foot
traffic for surrounding businesses. Pioneer Place mall, for example,
attracts more customers by having available parking at an adjacent
site, without adding the risk of developing parking or losing retail
space on their property.
Portland Hilton Executive Tower
Profile:
Hotel, conference center, retail,
parking garage
312 hotel rooms
20,000 square feet retail
680 shared parking spaces - 45%
more than typically allowed under
parking maximums
Strategies:
Transferable parking entitlements
Parking maximums
Shared parking
Benefits:
The preservation buildings that transferred their spaces to Melvin
Mark Companies also reap significant financial benefit. Typically older, com-
mercial buildings are at a market disadvantage for leasing space because
they cannot provide or commit parking for their tenants in office leases. With
parking built at the Hilton/Melvin Mark garage and preferential rights to lease
to their tenants, the older buildings compete on a more level playing field with
newer buildings for prospective tenants.
Increased parking revenue helped
attract major downtown develop-
ment
New parking benefit provided for older
downtown buildings without their
own garages
Shared use reduced impact of ex-
tra, empty parking spaces
Buckman Heights and Buckman Terrace
Located adjacent to Portland's central city Lloyd District and along the
edge of a light-industrial area, the site of the Buckman
Heights mixed-use development and the Buckman Ter-
race Apartments was used for decades as a car
dealership. Despite a heated real estate market, the 3.7-
acre site had been on sale for well over a year,
unattractive to most developers. Prendergast & Associ-
ates saw an opportunity to build housing on the site,
given its prime location—the project is located nine blocks
from light rail, within five blocks of four high-frequency
bus lines, and surrounded by a growing network of bike
lanes and routes. It is also within easy walking distance
of jobs in the Lloyd District, the Central Eastside, and
downtown. In part because of Portland's parking poli-
cies, Prendergast was able to purchase the site in 1997,
Courtesy ofPendergast & Associates, Inc.
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Parking Spaces/Community Places: Finding the Balance through Smart Growth Solutions
Buckman Heights Apartments and
Buckman Terrace
Profile:
Mixed market-rate and affordable housing
with modest retail
144 units and 122 units, respectively
Parking ratios of 0.4 and 0.57 spaces per
unit, respectively
sell the dealership building to a retail user, and convert the remaining 2.5
acres of vacant parking lots into sites for 274 units of housing—an 8-unit
townhouse project, a 144-unit mixed-income apartment building, and a 122-
unit apartment building with a small retail space. Creative parking strategies
helped to keep development costs low.
The city of Portland has very low minimum parking require-
ments in the area. Zoned for general employment, with housing
allowed but not actively encouraged, the minimum parking re-
quirements were just 0.5 spaces per unit—already a significant
reduction from the typical urban standards of between one
and two spaces per apartment. This neighborhood is close to
transit and jobs, providing consumers with a choice of differ-
ent housing types and mobility options.
Strategies:
Parking maximums
Use of on-street parking
Shared off-site parking
Car-sharing and bicycle parking available
Parking charges separated from rents
Benefits:
Lowered parking ratios increase affordabil-
ity: 40% of Buckman Heights units are af-
fordable
Elminating excess parking saved Buck-
man Terrace developers at least $875,000
Eliminating excess parking made room for
more affordable units
Residents benefit from affordable transpor-
tation options: bicycle facilities are well
used
Both developments have extremely low parking ratios. Buck-
man Heights has 58 on-site parking spaces for a ratio of 0.4
spaces per unit. Buckman Terrace has 70 spaces at a ratio of
0.57 spaces per unit, with only on-street parking for the retail.
These spaces are a mix of carport, surface, and at-grade struc-
ture spaces.
The developmenter was able to both reduce the parking
required and keep parking demand lower than supply through
the following strategies:
• Bicycle Facilities: Buckman Heights Apartments elim-
inated 14 required on-site parking spaces by providing 56
secure, covered bicycle parking spaces in addition to the
36 spaces required by code. Portland zoning provision al-
lows four covered, secure bike parking spaces to be
substituted for one automobile parking space, up to a max-
imum of 25 percent of the required parking. The developer
also provided lockers, floor pumps, and a workstand in the
bike rooms. The bicycle parking has been so well used that the
developer added even more bike parking to Buckman Terrace.
On-street parking: The Buckman Heights development included
restriping a wide street between the two apartment buildings to ac-
commodate angled parking, increasing the supply of on-street
spaces as well as creating a more pedestrian-friendly feel through
the addition of generous sidewalks, landscaping, and street lamps.
Although this did not directly replace the requirement for off-street
spaces in this case, it provided a buffer and allowed the develop-
ment to build as little parking as possible.
Shared off-site parking: The development made use of on-street
parking in the adjacent area where a sewing/assembly plant and a
high school were located. The adjacent uses had huge on-street
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Parking Spaces/Community Places: Finding the Balance through Smart Growth Solutions
parking demand during the day (when residents are typically at work)
but were empty on evenings and weekends (when residents are
typically home and parking their cars). This unique setting allowed
the developer and the lenders to feel comfortable with the sharply
reduced on-site parking ratios.
• Unbundled Parking Costs: Paying for parking separately from rent
helps keep residents aware of parking costs and allows them to
make informed, economic choices about vehicle ownership and other
transportation options. Parking at Buckman Heights costs between
$15 and $30 per month, depending on surface or covered spaces.
Buckman Terrace parking (structured) costs $50 per month.
• Car Sharing: FlexCar (originally CarSharing Portland) now has two
vehicles at the complex. Since car-sharing was not available at the
time of construction, it did not reduce the amount of parking that
had to be built, but it now reduces the need for residents to own
cars and, consequently, the demand for parking.
Keeping development costs low was particularly important because the
project was not eligible for property tax abatements that are given to low-
income and central city market-rate housing, because it lies just outside the
central city boundary. By cutting costs, partially from parking, the developers
were able to secure the funding needed for develop-
ment.
Considering per space construction costs in Port-
land of $5,000 to $7,000 for surface parking, upwards
of $15,000 for surface structures, and $25,000 to
$30,000 for below-grade structures, parking reduc-
tions in the Buckman developments significantly
reduced development costs. Buckman Terrace was
constructed with no surplus land, so additional park-
ing would have been forced to go underground. By
forgoing the construction of 50 additional spaces, the
developers were able to reduce the cost of the apart-
ments with the savings of between $875,000 and
$1,125,000. For Buckman Heights Apartments, the
developers were able to add additional apartments
to the project using the money saved from parking,
especially helpful for revenue given rent restrictions
on the affordable units.
The attention to a walkable environment has giv-
en the residents more transportation choices and
improved their quality of life, while also making the
project marketable. Both developments have been
at or near full occupancy (95 to 100 percent leased)
since the openings in 1999 and 2000, even outper-
Courtesy ofPendergast & Associates, Inc.
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Parking Spaces/Community Places: Finding the Balance through Smart Growth Solutions
forming the soft Portland housing market in recent months. The develop-
ments have provided more than 80 new affordable homes. In addition, charging
for parking separately from rent benefits households who do not have cars—
particularly low-income families. Infill housing also increases the city's tax
base.
Context-Specific Requirements
Arlington, Virginia
Commercial Uses:
• Commercial Office Zoning area outside of station
areas: one space per 530 square feet.
• Commercial Redevelopment Zone (along Metro
Corridor): one space per 580 square feet.
• Rosslyn-Ballston Metro Corridor Development and
developments within one-quarter mile of a Metro
station: one space per 1,000 square feet.
Retail Uses:
• For retail and service-commercial uses within 1,500
feet of a Metro station, no parking is required for
the first 5,000 square feet of gross floor area.
• Any square footage above that has the same park-
ing requirements as commercial in the area (ei-
ther 1:580 square feet or 1:1,000 square feet, de-
pending on its location in the corridor).
Residential Uses:
• High-density residential: 1.08 spaces per unit (1:1
+ visitor).
• Townhouses:2.2perunit(2:1 + visitor).
• Single family homes: one space per house. This
ratio assumes space in a driveway or on the street.
Context-Specific Requirements and TDM:
Arlington County, Virginia
Arlington County is an urban area of about 26 square miles directly across
the Potomac River from Washington, DC. Arlington County has adopted coun-
tywide development standards and guidelines, including lower parking ra-
tios, to support future growth of high-density commercial and residential de-
velopment around Metrorail stations in their two corridors—the Rosslyn-Ball-
ston Corridor and the Jefferson Davis Corridor. Two specific projects are
profiled here—a high-density residential development and a commercial de-
velopment. Both have used the county's context-specific parking require-
ments and travel demand management program to better match parking sup-
ply with demand, making resources available for other
community benefits.
Arlington County dictates minimum parking require-
ments based primarily on distance from Metro stations.
Parking requirements for commercial development are
particularly transit-sensitive, with the lowest ratios for
properties closest to Metro stations. According to Rich-
ard Best from the county Public Works Planning Division,
if a development is within one-quarter mile of a Metro
station, the county is open to allowing development with
no new on-site parking, although this is not specifically
written in the code.
Every project that goes through the site plan process
for development along Metro corridors is required to
have a transportation plan, which varies depending on
density and use. Further reductions in minimum parking
requirements, beyond the location- and use-specific stan-
dards, are granted for projects that include robust
transportation choices, such as free or discounted tran-
sit passes for employees, other transit subsidies,
ridesharing, and information on transit.
While not written into code, Arlington also enforces
urban design criteria in parking construction. All parking
is encouraged to be below ground, or if at surface level, it must be in a
structure that is wrapped with occupiable ground floor space, in order to
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Parking Spaces/Community Places: Finding the Balance through Smart Growth Solutions
reduce the impact of the parking on the walkability of the street.
There are no codes dictating such design, but a site-plan review
process strongly encourages it.
The Market Common
The Market Common in Clarendon is a mixed-use develop-
ment with retail and restaurant space, 300 market-rate apartment
units on upper floors, and adjacent office space. Located three
blocks from two Metro stations along the Rosslyn-Ballston corri-
dor, and in close proximity to dense employment and retail, the
area has a variety of uses and urban form that supports walking,
transit, and biking as well as driving and parking. Realizing that patrons of courtesy of Mccaffery interests
retail establishments would be using the parking during the day
while residents would mainly need parking at night, developers
of the Market Common devised a shared parking strategy.
Under typical suburban parking requirements, the develop-
ment would have required over 2,000 parking spaces. Under the
Arlington County Code, the project would have required 1,504
spaces for the retail, housing, and office space. But by using a
shared parking strategy, the development was able to reduce
the requirement by 25 percent—to 1,160 spaces. The Market
Common is the first recent development approved in the county
with no assigned spaces for residential units—all spaces are
equally available for all uses.
Parking demand is mitigated through several strategies:
• Parking costs are unbundled from rent for residents: $25 per month
for the first car, $75 to $100 per month for the
second;
Courtesy ofMcCaffery Interests
m Daily parking is variable for other users, with rates
of $1 to $4 per hour, with higher rates for longer
stays;
• Bicycle parking reduces demand, as does prox-
imity to transit.
Perhaps the parking could have been reduced even
more and still met demand. Studies of parking use at
Market Common indicate that up to 20 percent of avail-
able parking remains unused at peak times. The
developer and county agreed to count that surplus park-
ing toward requirements at future phases of this
development.
Profile:
The Market Common
225,000 square feet of retail and restaurant use
300 market-rate apartment units
Parking: 25 percent reduction from county code
Strategies:
Shared parking
Parking costs separated from rents
Transit and bicycle facilities
Benefits:
Fewer required spaced reduced development costs
by an estimated $16 million
Parking paid for only by those who use it
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Parking Spaces/Community Places: Finding the Balance through Smart Growth Solutions
Profile:
1801 North Lynn Street
Office building with street-level retail
348,000 square feet of office space
6,000 square feet of retail space
386 parking spaces, one-third of typical requirements
Strategies:
Extensive TDM program including fare subsidies
Bicycle, pedestrian, and transit facilities
Benefits:
Employees have a range of commuting choices
Eliminating unnecessary parking helped make project
financially feasible
Increased tax base from new commercial activity
1801 North Lynn Street
The 1801 North Lynn Street development is a new commercial building in
the Rosslyn Metrorail station area, zoned for parking requirements of one
space per 1,000 square feet, dependent upon the
choices available to travelers. The zoning in this area
permits increases in density and height when the
County Board finds that the development offers im-
portant community benefits. The 1801 North Lynn
Street development has 347,295 square feet of office
space, 6,065 square feet of retail, and 386 parking
spaces. At typical suburban parking ratios, that amount
of development would have been accompanied by
roughly three times as many parking spaces. Trans-
portation Demand Management strategies allowed
parking to be reduced to one space per 1,000 square
feet ratio. The transportation program included the
following elements:
• Full-time, on-site Employee Transportation Co-
ordinator to manage the program;
Financial contribution to the Rosslyn Commuter Store;
Transit fare subsidies for employees;
Implementation of several ridesharing and parking strategies, in-
cluding promoting ridesharing, helping commuters find rides,
and subsidizing parking for carpools and off-peak commut-
ing; and
• Bike facilities and showers to encourage bicycle com-
muting.
For workers in this building, the discounted Metro fare, along
with walking and biking access to many residential neighbor-
hoods, provides real choices in how to get to work. For shoppers
at its retail establishments, newly available on-street parking in
front of the stores provides a better option than existed before.
The county gets an increased tax base and the vitality of mixed-
use development and street-level retail in an area that in the
past has not enjoyed off-peak activity.
Financial benefits to the developers of the two Arlington
County projects are obvious ~ reduced parking requirements
sharply reduce construction costs, which in Arlington can mean
upwards of $15,000 per space for structured parking, and up
to $25,000 or more for below-grade spaces. Building less parking
is a major part of making the projects financially feasible, in
terms of balancing land costs, construction costs, revenue, and
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Parking Spaces/Community Places: Finding the Balance through Smart Growth Solutions
lending. The Market Commons project, for example, saved $16 million from
the 400 forgone parking spaces, without which it would not have been a
feasible project.
Arlington has succeeded in promoting high-density, mixed-use develop-
ments with reduced parking in its Metrorail corridors. This kind of design
promotes walk and bike trips as people can go from home to work and shop-
ping in very short distances. Urban design in both projects pays close attention
to pedestrian comfort, by providing usable public space, circulation paths,
attractive landscaping, and engaging street-level architecture.
Transportation Management for Mixed-Use
Development: Santa Clara, California
NASA Research Park
The NASA Ames Research Center (ARC) is a 1,500-acre site of federally
owned land that lies between the southwestern edge of the San Francisco
Bay and Silicon Valley, in Santa Clara County, California. Part of the site
includes Moffet field, a decommissioned military site. Years of planning and
community input led to an award-winning plan for a mixed-use development
including an emphasis on research and technology firms; Internet-search
giant Google recently announced it would build a major campus at the site.
Design and construction will continue through at least 2014.
The majority of redevelopment on NASA's land will occur in the NASA
Research Park (NRP), a 213-acre parcel on the southwest part of the site.
Plans for development include the restoration of existing historical buildings,
as well as adding nearly two million square feet of educational, office, re-
search and development, museum, conference center, housing, and retail
space. Also being developed as part of the project is 28 acres of a 95-acre
parcel on the north side of the site called "The Bay View." This area is slated
for predominantly housing uses, in addition to supporting retail, childcare,
and other services. The remainder of Bay View will remain as open space
and natural habitat.
Because the NASA land is federally owned, it is exempt from city or county
codes that dictate parking requirements, as well as other development re-
strictions. Despite the lack of restrictions, the NRP project sought from the
beginning to reduce the impact of traffic on surrounding streets and neigh-
borhoods—with the goal of keeping driving at least 32 percent below the
typical rates by Santa Clara County residents.
Had the site been developed using typical minimum parking ratios, it would
have needed 7,542 parking spaces. Instead, the TDM plan calls for 5,200
spaces, with parking ratios determined by the actual number of people ex-
pected to be on-site.
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Parking Spaces/Community Places: Finding the Balance through Smart Growth Solutions
NASA Research Park and Bay View
Profile:
A TDM plan was developed for the NRP and Bay View, using a range of
trip reduction strategies to ensure that parking demand can be accommodat-
ed in fewer spaces The TDM plan will be binding on partners and other
tenants at the NRP and Bay View developments, pursuant to the provisions
of the environmental permits.
Some of the many innovative TDM strategies to achieve the plan's goals
include:
• Supportive site design, including housing,
retail, and office space in close proximity; bicy-
cle paths and bike parking; a network of
sidewalks and paths;
Partially redeveloped 1500-acre former military base
with significant open space
1,120 town home apartments for 3,300 residents
810 dormitory-style housing units for 1,560 students
Renovation of 600,000 square feet of historic buildings
Addition of more than three million square feet of new
housing, office, and retail space
5,200 parking spaces, 32 percent less than typical
development codes require
Strategies:
Benefits:
Mix uses to reduce vehicle trips
Bicycle and pedestrian facilities and shuttle bus
Parking pricing policies
Specific TDM goals for commuting trips, including 32
percent fewervehicle trips than area average
Reduced traffic impact on surrounding communities
Less pavement reduces impact on natural habitat
Convenient housing and commuting options for resi-
dents and employees
Reducing unnecessary parking saves $3 million an-
nually
• Oh-site employees and students get priori-
ty for purchasing on-site homes
• Site-wide shuttle bus program and bus
pass;
• Partners, lessees, & tenants are required
to pass on the cost of parking or offer parking
cash-out;
• Parking fees structured so the less you park,
the less you pay: o discount for monthly park-
ing; hourly spaces; low rates for carpoolers
• 75 percent of all spaces shared between
land uses.
The TDM plan allows for adjusting the price of
parking to balance demand with supply. This flexi-
bility provides revenue for TDM programming while
ensuring efficient use of the parking. The TDM pro-
gram means significant cost savings for developers,
while reducing the environmental impact and improving the pedestrian envi-
ronment of the future campus.
Without the TDM program, the development would have needed an addi-
tional 2,342 parking spaces, at a cost of about $3 million annually. Parking
fees cover all costs of providing parking and the TDM program, a benefit to
both the developer and surrounding communities: The TDM program re-
quires that those who park pay for the parking supply. Travelers who want to
drive can park, while travelers who choose not to drive do not have to pay for
it.
The land itself is a brownfield—formerly contaminated by its military use—
as well as an environmentally sensitive habitat—home to the burrowing owl,
a California species of special concern. The development focuses on reme-
diation, preservation, and environmental sustainability. The development plan
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Parking Spaces/Community Places: Finding the Balance through Smart Growth Solutions
goes a step further to ensure conservation for a sustainable future—it incor-
porates energy efficiency, water conservation, transportation demand
management, and seismic safety. This is a striking change from typical de-
velopment patterns in the area.
The NRP TDM plan will reduce impervious pavement, an element of de-
velopment that can damage nearby ecosystems because of reduced habitat,
limited rainwater re-absorption, and increased polluted stormwater runoff.
Reduced parking in the NRP saves land, which contributes to the project's
81 acres of preserved land for the endangered burrowing owl.
By combining uses on the property and offering on-site employees and
students priority for purchasing homes, the development will not only reduce
the need for
people to com-
mute from out of
the region, but
will sharply re-
duce internal
vehicle trips.
The develop-
ment will be
home to nearly
5,000 people,
at least half of
whom will work
or study on the
campus. These
employees will
be able to find
services on site,
instead of hav-
ing to run
errands off site
on their lunch
breaks. NASA
has committed
to offering a
minimum of 10
percent of the
homes on site
at prices afford-
able to its
employees.
The reduced
parking is not an end in itself. It underscores the emphasis on better urban
design and improved walkability, improving the quality of life of residents,
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Parking Spaces/Community Places: Finding the Balance through Smart Growth Solutions
employees, students, and visitors.
The Shoppes of Wilton Manors
Reduced Parking Requirements:
Wilton Manors, Florida
The Shoppes of Wilton Manors
In the city of Wilton Manors, in Broward County, parking reductions were
partly responsible for enabling a financially deteriorating neighborhood shop-
ping center to be redeveloped into a successful mixed-use development,
featuring restaurants, art galleries, and other entertainment uses, as well as
professional offices. At its peak in the 1960s, the shopping center housed a
Grand Union supermarket, a bank, a fast food restaurant, and many other
stores. In the 1990s, the shopping center lost sever-
al businesses, reducing the tenant occupancy rate
to 30 percent.
Profile:
Redevelopment of neighborhood shopping center
Converted to an entertainment destination
Eliminated construction of 390 unnecessary parking
spaces
Strategies:
Zoning overlay district recognizes lower demand for
parking
Off-site shared parking facilities
Benefits:
Buildings preserved for rental, ratherthan demolished
for parking
Saved $1.9 million in construction costs
Increased property values and city revenues
Helped inspire nearby redevelopment
Southeast Florida, comprising Palm Beach, Bro-
ward, and Dade Counties, is one of the fastest grow-
ing regions of the United States. Projections for 2015
suggest that the population will reach 6.2 million peo-
ple, an increase of over 50 percent from 1990. With
the growing population and increasing development,
fragile ecosystems are being lost and water supplies
threatened. Communities and this region are seek-
ing to reverse these trends by developing compact,
mixed-use, walkable places. Reducing parking re-
quirements is one element of southeast Florida's
move toward smart growth and development.
To accommodate redevelopment of the shopping
center and revitalize the area, the city teamed with a
private development company, Redevco, creating a public/private partner-
ship to transform the property. Because a host of "big box" retail stores had
recently located in outlying areas, this property could not support additional
retail stores. Instead, the city and Redevco identified an untapped market
niche—entertainment, cultural attractions, and restaurants. To enable these
uses, the city created a new zoning overlay district that not only changed
zoning requirements to allow arts and entertainment uses, but also exempted
the developer from standard parking requirements by allowing shared park-
ing in planned off-site public parking structures. The new zoning district also
allowed outside cafes and seating to make the restaurants more inviting and
attractive.
Under the city's generic parking requirements, art and entertainment uses
would have required 390 new parking spaces, in addition to the existing
spaces at the site required for existing retail. Construction of the additional
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Parking Spaces/Community Places: Finding the Balance through Smart Growth Solutions
390 parking spaces would have cost approximately $1.9 million and would
have also necessitated demolition of existing buildings, further increasing
redevelopment costs and eliminating rental income from the lost buildings.
Reducing the parking requirements and allowing shared parking reduced the
development costs enough to make the redevelopment financially feasible.
The Shoppes of Wilton Manors now boasts full occupancy and rental
rates of $32 per square foot (up from $8 per square foot). These two comple-
mentary factors—increased occupancy and increased rental rates—account
for an increase in total annual rental income of $26 million, or 12 times its
former rental income.
In addition to the financial success of the project, the revitalization of the
Shoppes of Wilton Manors has provided other benefits to the community.
The project has stimulated adjacent economic development. An office build-
ing next door that was vacant for 18 months now houses a law firm with 100
employees, many of whom frequent the restaurants and entertainment facili-
ties at the Shoppes of Wlton Manors. Property values in the surrounding
area are also improving; rental rates have almost doubled, from $6 to be-
tween $11 and $14 per square foot of leased space. The increased property
value of the Shoppes of Wlton Manors—increasing by more than 10 times
the initial value, from $226,000 to over $3.3 million—will add an estimated
$80,000 in property tax revenues to the city. In addition, the other private
investments along Wlton Drive have increased city-wide property tax reve-
nues by 10 percent. Storefront and landscaping improvements make the area
more attractive. Criminal activity has dropped due to the increased activity
and vibrancy of the area. The walkable nature of the town center is en-
hanced as a result of improved site access. All of these benefits contribute to
an improved quality of life for local residents and business people.
Some of the key elements in Wlton Manors' success include:
• The developer's and the city's willingness and commitment to work
together;
• The city's flexibility in reducing parking requirements to support dif-
ferent redevelopment uses;
• Substantial cost savings resulting from parking reductions, making
the redevelopment financially feasible; and
• Contributing to significant secondary benefits, including increasing
the tax base and design improvements, by catalyzing surrounding
development.
According to Redevco executive vice president, Debra Sinkle, the project
succeeded because of the public/private partnership between the city and
Redevco. The city's flexibility on zoning requirements and its commitment to
the project created the confidence necessary for private investment.
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Parking Spaces/Community Places: Finding the Balance through Smart Growth Solutions
TDM Program: Redmond, Washington
SAFECO Insurance Company Expansion
The state of Washington's Commute Trip Reduction (CTR) law was passed
in 1991 to improve air quality and mitigate traffic congestion. This transporta-
tion demand management measure targets the state's largest counties (those
with populations greater than 150,000 people), requiring employers with more
than 100 employees to implement programs to reduce
single occupancy vehicle (SOV) trips to and from work.
Through the state's CTR, employers monitor commuter
King County Metro
King County, Washington
5,000 vanpool commuters each day
Provides TDM support services to employeers
travel patterns by administering employee surveys, which
Washington's most populous county, with almost 2
million residents ^re written and processed by the state. The CTR es-
tablished a goal of a 35- percent reduction in trips by
Metro transit serves 75 million riders per year, and
2005 compared to 1993 levels.
The headquarters of SAFECO Insurance Company
of America is in Redmond, a suburb of Seattle in King
County, one of the nine Washington counties affected
by the CTR. SAFECO has responded to the CTR with
an award-winning Transportation Management Plan (TMP) that includes em-
ployee transit passes, reserved parking for high occupancy vehicles (HOV),
ride matching, vanpooling, and guaranteed rides home for employees at all
its offices in the Seattle region.. By providing these services, SAFECO was
allowed to build less parking for a recent expansion project below the city of
Redmond's maximum levels.
SAFECO has undertaken a large-scale construction project to accommo-
date anticipated growth at its corporate headquarters in Redmond, adding
three buildings (385,000 square feet of office space) and three parking struc-
tures (843 parking spaces) for the new office space. To preserve the attractive,
park-like setting of the 48-acre campus and to maintain a pedestrian-friendly
environment, SAFECO chose to construct all three parking structures under-
ground. These subterranean spaces, while expensive to construct at $18,000
per space, preserve green space and make it easier to walk around the
business park campus. The city of Redmond has maximum parking limits that
would allow SAFECO to construct 1,155 spaces. Instead, SAFECO built 843
spaces, resulting in a parking ratio of 2.2 spaces per 1,000 square feet for
the new office space. This amounts to a savings, relative to the maximum
limits, of 312 parking spaces. Reducing the number of spaces allowed SAFECO
to mitigate the higher cost of constructing underground parking, in addition to
helping meet design goals.
While these parking reductions were not implemented as cost-cutting mea-
sures, the gross cost savings associated with the parking reductions (relative
to the maximum limits) amount to $5.6 million in parking construction costs, or
50
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Parking Spaces/Community Places: Finding the Balance through Smart Growth Solutions
about $491,000 annually.1
SAFECO's exemplary IMP reduced parking demand and allowed the com-
pany to build fewer parking spaces. SAFECO targets a portion of the savings
to the IMP, approximately $261,000 per year including $75,400 for transit
subsidies. Combining the full cost of transportation demand management at
the Redmond campus and the savings from parking reductions, SAFECO
annually saves $230,000 from parking reductions. Given that SAFECO would
have incurred some of the costs of transportation demand management at its
Redmond campus regardless of the parking reductions, the net savings ac-
tually exceed $230,000. SAFECO's decision to increase the density of its
existing property, rather than move to another (likely ex-urban) location, also
avoided the cost of procuring additional land.
Under its IMP, SAFECO agrees to maintain the rate of employees driving
to work alone at or below 60 percent. Since 1997, SAFECO has kept these
trips to between 57 and 59 percent of total commute trips. By comparison,
81 percent of east King County commuters drive alone, and 13 percent car-
pool (Washington State Department of Transportation 1999). Rather than
drive alone, 15 percent of SAFECO employees carpool; 12 percent use van-
pool services; 8 percent use public transit; and the remaining 7 percent bicycle,
walk, ortelecommute.
The company also maintains information on commuter vehicle miles trav-
eled (VMT). On average, SAFECO employees travel between 6.5 and 7 miles
one way. Thus, by maintaining an average 58 percent SOV rate for its 1,700
employees, SAFECO averts as many as 4,635 VMT each day, or about 1.2
million miles each year. These VMT figures assume two people per carpool
and four people per vanpool. Thus, if the carpools or vanpools transport a
greater number of passengers, this reduction in VMT would be greater.
• Air Quality Benefits: The environmental benefits associated with
this reduction in automobile commute miles are significant. Avoiding
almost 1.2 million miles of automobile travel also avoids approxi-
mately 27.56 tons of carbon monoxide, 3.85 tons of nitrogen oxides,
and 2.20 tons of hydrocarbons each year.2
• Water Quality Benefits: Another significant, yet less quantifiable,
environmental benefit of reduced parking is the preservation of per-
vious surfaces to absorb rainfall and prevent polluted runoff.
Increasing the amount of impervious areas through paving can alter
1 This annual amount is only associated with construction costs and assumes constant
payments, an interest rate of 7.25 percent, and a 25-year payment period per discussion with
SAFECO transportation manager.
2 Calculated using average emissions factors from EPA's Office of Mobile Sources' Compi-
lation of Air Pollution Emissions Factors, Volume II: Mobile Sources: (AP-42), which provides
the following emissions factors: 21.05 grams of carbon monoxide emitted perVMT, 2.97 grams
of nitrogen oxides emitted per VMT, and 1.71 grams of hydrocarbons emitted per VMT.
51
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Parking Spaces/Community Places: Finding the Balance through Smart Growth Solutions
the area's hydrologic system and cause runoff mixed with oil and
other contaminants to pollute receiving streams, rivers, lakes, and
estuaries. With approximately 40 inches of precipitation each year
and many fishable streams, the King County ecosystem is especial-
ly susceptible to polluted runoff. An additional 312 parking spaces
in above-ground lots would mean another 100,000 square feet of
impervious surfaces.
Several key factors contributed to the success of SAFECO's program.
Profile:
SAFECO Insurance Company
Expanded office park by 385,000 square feet
843 underground parking spaces, 27 percent less than
typical requirement
Strategy:
TDM plan including vanpools, transit passes, guaran-
teed rides home
Benefits:
Eliminating unnecessary parking saves $230,000 an-
nually
Employees avoid commuting costs and receive tran-
sit benefits
Employees drive about 1.2 million miles less per year
Less driving avoids about 33 tons of pollutants per year
Reduced pavement for parking leads to less storm
water runoff
• The city of Redmond was flexible and coop-
erative in allowing SAFECO to increase density
on the existing property.
• SAFECO has an environmentally responsi-
ble corporate ethic of reducing parking below the
maximum limits and staying in Redmond rather
than relocating.
• Frequent and reliable public transit through
King County Metro enables SAFECO employees
to use alternative modes of transportation even
when commuting from other towns in the county.
• SAFECO did not require outside financing.
SAFECO's transportation management director
believes that, had the project required outside
funding, lenders might have resisted making loans
unless more parking was provided in the devel-
opment plan.
Shared Parking and In-Lieu Fees:
Long Beach, California
Embassy Suites at the D'Orsay Promenade
The city of Long Beach, California, recognizes that creating high-quality
downtown development requires balancing the costs and supply of parking
with other community goals, including economic development and walkabili-
ty. In its Downtown Parking Management Plan, the city's redevelopment agency
promotes small- and large-scale urban development by allowing for shared
parking and in-lieu parking fees. The types of development projects eligible
for these parking alternatives include non-residential new construction on
lots less than 22,500 square feet, additions or rehabilitation to existing build-
52
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Parking Spaces/Community Places: Finding the Balance through Smart Growth Solutions
ings, and renovation of historic landmark buildings.
The four-star Embassy Suites at the D'Orsey
Promenade, which was proposed to the city in 1998,
provides an example of how cities can use parking
reductions to facilitate redevelopment. The pro-
posed D'Orsay Hotel included a 162-room boutique
hotel with 35,000 square feet of retail space. The
property, on a three-block pedestrian walkway in
downtown Long Beach was previously a surface
parking lot.
Other development proposals for this property
had been made to the city, but fell through in part
due to the financial burden imposed by the city's minimum parking require-
ments. They would have required the developer to construct one parking
space per hotel room and four spaces per 1,000 square feet of gross floor
area (GFA) of retail space, totaling 302 spaces. With construction costs of
$16,000 per parking space, the parking costs would have totaled $4.83 mil-
lion, making the project financially infeasible.
The developer worked with the city, which conducted a traffic study to
assess parking demand at other Long Beach downtown hotels. The city's
planning department determined that this mixed-use hotel and retail develop-
ment did not require the minimum number of parking spaces and modified the
requirements in part by allowing the hotel and retail to share the available
Modified Parking Requirements for the D'Orsay Hotel
Generic Requirements
Retail
Hotel
Total
Revised Requirements
Retail
Hotel
Total
Revised Requirements
Retail & Hotel On-Site
Retail & Hotel Off -at e
Total
(With In-Lieu Fees)
Requirement
4 spaces/1 ,000
square feet GFA
1 space/room
-
3 spaces/1,000
square feet GFA
0.70 spaces/room
-
and In-Lieu Fees
N/A
N/A
-
Gross Floor
Area
(GFA)
35,000
square feet
162 room s
-
35,000
square feet
162 room s
~
N/A
N/A
-
# of
Spaces
Required
140
162
302
105
113
218
162
56
218
Cost per
Space
$16,000
$16,000
$16,000
$16,000
$16,000
$3,000
Total
Cost
(millions)
$2.24
$2.59
$4.83
$1.68
$1.81
$3.49
$2.59
$0.168
$2.76
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Parking Spaces/Community Places: Finding the Balance through Smart Growth Solutions
D'Orsay Hotel
Profile:
Boutique hotel with retail space on former downtown
parking lot
162 parking spaces, 47 percent less than typical re-
quirement
spaces. The plan reduced the retail parking space required to three spaces
per 1,000 square feet. The hotel's valet parking system allowed the reduc-
tion of parking requirements for the hotel space, to 113 spaces for the 162
rooms. These modifications reduced the number of required spaces by 84.
However, parking construction costs still made the project financially in-
feasible. Even with the revised requirements, the 218 parking spaces for this
project would cost $3.49 million to build. Upholding its mission to encourage
urban revitalization, the city of Long Beach Redevelopment Bureau agreed
to further adjust the parking requirements by charging in-lieu fees in places
of 56 of the required spaces. The in-lieu fee was
$3,000 per parking space plus an additional $50 per
space per month to cover parking operating and main-
tenance expenditures. The city is obligated to provide
those parking spaces near the hotel.
Strategy:
Parking study to assess market demand
Shared parking
In-lieu fees to provide off-site parking
Benefits:
Eliminating unnecessary parking saved $2 million in
construction costs, making project financially feasi-
ble
Provides new shopping and work opportunties down-
town
Adds $300,000 in new tax revenues annually, to be
used for further revitalization projects
As shown in the accompanying table, the revised
parking requirements decreased the developer's
parking construction costs by over $2 million, with
$730,000 of the savings coming from the in-lieu fee
arrangement. This reduction made the entire project
financially feasible. These cost savings significantly
improved the projected financial net returns for the
proposed project and ultimately facilitated revitaliza-
tion of the surrounding area.
The hotel is expected to generate approximately
$300,000 annually in additional property tax reve-
nues for the city. Because this property is in an
economically troubled area qualified to receive spe-
cial assistance as a "California Redevelopment Project Area," the property
tax revenue generated from the project will be directed back into the area for
further redevelopment and infrastructure improvements. In addition, the state
will receive revenues from California's 8.25 percent sales tax, and the city
will receive revenues from the 10 percent hotel tax. The D'Orsay Hotel will
give Long Beach residents an active and pedestrian friendly downtown with
multiple amenities. Infill redevelopment like the D'Orsay Hotel and other
projects may help to reduce development pressures on outlying areas and
encourage additional redevelopment.
This successful redevelopment was made possible by several elements:
• The city of Long Beach's flexibility and recognition that parking is
expensive and consumes valuable land. This enabled the develop-
er to negotiate the reduced parking requirements and in-lieu fees
that made the project feasible.
• Combining two types of innovative parking strategies (shared park-
ing and in-lieu fees). This was necessary to make the development
54
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Parking Spaces/Community Places: Finding the Balance through Smart Growth Solutions
project financially feasible.
• Conducting a development-specific traffic study to estimate the num-
ber of parking spaces needed for development. The study of other
downtown Long Beach hotels showed that applying the city's park-
ing standards would have resulted in an excess supply of parking at
the D'Orsay Hotel.
55
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