City of Columbia Government ’s Post

Outdated parking mandates have become barriers to progress in many cities, including Haltom City. These regulations, which require a minimum number of parking spaces based on property type, often hinder redevelopment and limit housing options. 'The constraint is completely artificial. It's just based on some number that someone put in a book 40 or 50 years ago,' said Tony Jordan of the Parking Reform Network. While cities like Austin, Taylor, Bandera, and Bastrop have taken steps to reduce or eliminate parking minimums, Haltom City remains an ideal candidate for such reform. The Haltom United Business Alliance (#huba) has advocated for creating an overlay district where parking minimums are eliminated, enabling business-friendly policies. Ron Sturgeon, founder of HUBA and the 'Make Haltom City Thrive Again' initiative, experienced firsthand how parking mandates can stifle redevelopment. His plans to convert a derelict skating rink into a new salon and spa were halted due to insufficient parking, despite an agreement to share an underutilized church lot. The American Planning Association has recognized the benefits of parking reform, stating it 'helps boost small businesses, promote housing development, and put people over parking.' As Haltom City seeks revitalization, especially in its southern and central areas, embracing parking reform could be a crucial step towards attracting new businesses and fostering economic growth. #parkingreform #smallbusiness #revitalization #haltomcity Parking Reform Network

It's time to speak up, NYC! Tell your City Council Member to support the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity text amendment to fully lift parking mandates and put people before cars. Open Plans has an easy way for you to take action today: https://buff.ly/3UNGCZa Parking mandates—zoning rules requiring parking spaces in new developments—are making housing more expensive and harder to build. In addition to worsening the housing shortage and hurting affordability, parking mandates work against our climate goals! Dozens of cities in the U.S. have already lifted parking mandates to make housing more plentiful and affordable, while also cutting down on traffic, reducing emissions, and freeing up land for green spaces. NYC should be next! The City of Yes text amendment, which would end residential parking minimums, is currently in the public review process. Let’s tell our elected leaders that we’re ready for change! #CityOfYes

As Spokane eliminates parking minimums for new developments, we’re entering a transformative period in urban development. This change opens up opportunities for developers to focus on denser, more sustainable projects without the constraints of parking requirements. For those of us in commercial real estate, this could mean more flexibility in project designs and potentially more affordable housing options. How do you see this shift impacting the market and our communities? https://lnkd.in/gVsuRWtx

We did an exercise in my Walkable Cities course where we counted up the various types of parking parcels in downtown Phoenix. In the couple block radius we looked at, ~25% of the land was made up of parking! That's a LOT of wasted potential! There were lots (lol) of surface parking lots but also several parking garages, though there were some where parking was subsurface or encompassed by storefronts. I decided to take a look at a significantly smaller Elmira and noticed the same if not more of downtown Elmira was covered with surface parking lots! Even worse, after moving back to the area and getting to walk around again, so many are either completely empty most of the time or have a handful of cars in the entire lot at any given moment. And two underutilized parking structures, which probably haven't ever seen full capacity. These underutilized, heat-generating surfaces tear up our urban fabric and contribute to urban heat islands. The least we should be doing is breaking up these surfaces with green (trees, bioswales, rain gardens) and making them safe for pedestrians, and encouraging the use of our parking garages. The City built Gerard Way with essentially no nearby parking and on-street parking is hardly utilized off of the one block of Water + Main in downtown. Yet some businesses with 10 employees have full parking lots to themselves and no trespassing/private property signs. We should be sewing up the fabric by developing on these underutilized parcels to create a more walkable, compatible, and enjoyable downtown. With work planned for the garage, we should be working with downtown businesses and apartments to ensure the garage is being used all throughout the day, rather than tenants taking up on-street parking meant for businesses. And get rid of parking minimums while we're at it!

Currently, Bellingham is considering several options for parking reform, each with its pros and cons: 🚗 Elimination of Parking Minimums Citywide: This would make parking optional, reducing development costs and environmental impact. However, it could lead to infrastructure challenges and parking competition in some areas. 🚗 Transit Oriented Development (TOD): Removing parking requirements near transit hubs encourages development and reduces environmental impacts, but it requires more administrative oversight and might limit benefits to certain areas. 🚗 By Land Use: Eliminating parking requirements for residential areas while retaining them for non-residential zones could boost housing development but might not provide as many environmental benefits. 🚗 By Geographic Area: Focusing on walkable, gridded areas helps direct growth and infrastructure improvements efficiently but requires higher administrative effort and might limit citywide benefits. Each option aims to balance development needs with sustainability and infrastructure capacity. Which option do you support? . . . Music: See You Musician: @iksonmusic #ParkingReform #BellinghamFuture #UrbanPlanning #BellinghamWA

The most transformative updates to New York City’s Zoning Resolution since 1961 are here. The recently approved City of Yes for Housing Opportunity is reshaping how the city grows by incentivizing affordable housing, easing office-to-residential conversions, and eliminating parking mandates in transit-rich areas. Curious about how these changes could impact your property or projects? Read more here: https://lnkd.in/eDsskPC5

Why do we care more about housing cars than housing people? This is the central question of the excelling book Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World, which I recommend it to anyone who cares about either transportation, policy, or affordable housing. Henry Grabar makes a compelling case for how city-mandated minimum parking requirements make affordable housing so expensive to build and businesses so hard to start, because parking is so costly (as in, $50,000 a stall or more). All this, when most places already have much more parking than they need. I am grateful for the work that the Parking Reform Network is doing to remove parking minimums around the country and let the market dictate how much is needed. Let's reimagine how that space could be used.

The Hidden Impact of Parking Laws on Your Neighborhood Discover how new parking legislation is reshaping residential areas, making housing more affordable, and transforming community aesthetics. This video explores the implications of removing parking requirements and its effects on neighborhood dynamics. Don’t miss out on this essential guide! #ParkingLaws #NeighborhoodChange #HousingAffordability #UrbanDevelopment #CommunityImpact #RealEstateTrends #CityPlanning #AffordableHousing #ResidentialDevelopment #UrbanDesign

Parking space or Housing space? The idea of parking has become increasingly controversial with the emergence of the housing crisis in the US. On the one hand, parking is a vital component of urban planning and management because it provides a safe and legal space for people to leave their vehicles. On the other hand, parking uses up valuable land in a city which could be put to better use (like living) and discourages car-free/public transportation. To give a better understanding, the illustration below shows 4 standard parking spaces at the top and a 600 sq. ft. 1 bedroom apartment on the bottom. Within the city of Tampa, each new development constructed must include a proportional amount of parking spaces for the intended use. Do you believe a reduction in parking will alleviate housing issues in a city? This is a cool website which shows the percentage of land dedicated to parking in major cities and dives deeper into parking reform on a whole: https://lnkd.in/eTv4a4qS #urbanplanning #GIS #CAD #parking

"the speed of traffic on residential streets is governed by the degree of psychological retreat by the people who live there." I have to credit my dear friend, Steven Florko with pointing out this little gem. He said they took a sidewalk view instead of a dashboard view but arrived at the same place. There are several things I love about their placemaking strategy: 1. They start with the possible and get as much done as fast as they can--before committees can second guess the change. 2. They ask for permission to rather than regulations against. 3. They refuse to do a plan without doing something right now. 4. They'll take less money for themselves and shift the budget into implementation--often done with local folks chipping in.