Parking Requirements and Housing Affordability

Michael ManvilleDepartment of City and Regional Planning

Cornell UniversitySeptember 19, 2013

The Purpose of Parking Requirements

• Prevent congested curb parking

Westwood Village Parking Requirement: 1.5 spaces per efficiency apartment, 2.5 spaces per 2-bedroom apartment

Problem 1: They Don’t Work Very Well

Problem 2: Distorted Development Decisions, Distorted Landscapes

Pre-War Building7,500 sq ftPre-

100% efficiency

Same Building, 2013:

3,125 sq. ft. (improvements)

12 stalls (4 per 1,000 sq. ft.)

Illustration: MDA Johnson Favaro Architecture & Urban Design

42% efficiency

All transportation systems have three basic elements:

Vehicles Rights of way Terminal capacity

Trains Tracks StationsAirplanes Sky AirportsShips Oceans SeaportsCars Roads Parking spaces

Shifting the Cost of Vehicle Ownerhsip into Cost of Housing

• Makes it difficult to build housing– For certain people (those who don’t own cars or don’t

need them on-site with housing)– On some parcels (small lots)– In some buildings (historic structures with no parking

and no room to provide it)– In some neighborhoods (if a neighborhood is

dominated by small parcels/old buildings)In sum: infill gets harder. Housing at lower price-points

gets harder.

50 apartments

550 sq feet apiece

You think you can sell 50 units to people you don’t want onsite parking

• 1 space per unit parking requirement – 50 spaces

• 1 sq ft parking per 2 sq ft of apartment

• Go underground: lose six units to the ramp

• Underground only holds 33 spaces ($40-50k per space)

• 44 units, 33 spaces

• Dig second level ($$$)

• Can’t just dig 11 spaces – end up with 66 spaces for 44 units

• Marginal cost of the 34th space is extraordinary

• You need a variance (Good luck)

• Even with the variance, you are now building to a higher price point

Surface parking instead

Building shrinks to 30 units

You have 19 spaces

Still not enough; need to shrink to 25 units or get a variance

Again building for a higher price point

Things that don’t matter to the city:How much each additional space costsWhether off-street parking is abundant in the neighborhood (how much you could sell your spaces for)Whether transit is nearby

Why Can’t the Private-Sector Provide Lower-Income Housing?

Why Do Old Buildings Sit Vacant?

• 322 apartments, developer added 200 on-site spaces

• Downtown Requirement: 1 space per unit minimum

• With parking requirement, maximum 200 units

• Would not have penciled out• Historic building, fully

occupied, $1,200 month• Illegal to build it today

Concerns

• No one will build parking/ Spillover parking

• Meters (or permits) manage curb parking

Conclusions

• Parking requirements mandate quantity and location without respect to cost

• Attempt to solve a problem on public streets by regulating private land

• If cities manage street-parking, off-street parking takes care of itself– Cities that think they need parking requirements

usually need parking meters