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