Small Housing’s Post

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

Transitional Neighbourhood Parking Strategy

Car parking is often an overlooked factor in urban housing costs. Providing dedicated parking spaces, especially in densely populated urban areas, is both expensive and space consuming. For developers, these costs are typically passed on to buyers or renters, contributing to the overall price of housing. Reducing or eliminating mandatory car parking minimums in new developments can directly reduce the cost of construction and, consequently, the price of housing units. As part of the Brisbane City Council’s Inner-City Affordability Initiative, the tailored amendment on car parking addresses this by offering more flexibility to developers while providing increased transportation options to residents. Read the full article here - https://loom.ly/wuOn1dQ #BrisbaneCity #Parking

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 mid-rise apartment with ground-floor retail is a vital part of the solution to our housing crisis, bringing a wider range of housing options while creating potential to meet some of our daily needs without a car. However, I'm seeing a troubling trend in terms of where these are placed. Because they're seen as "density", they often get pushed to major roads with apartments and ground-floor retail fronting onto multi-lane streets carrying traffic going 60 km/h or more. For these buildings to achieve their potential, we either need to place them inside neighbourhoods on quieter streets, or slow the speeds of the streets they are on. These developments support walkability, but that means very little if the street itself isn't walkable! #ActiveTransportation #RoadSafety #Housing

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

This is an absolutely massive development! Huge respect to the Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner for sticking his neck out and showing some real leadership here - and well done to everyone at Brisbane City Council who helped make this happen. Parking minimums place a huge premium on new housing, adding somewhere to the tune of $80,000-$100,000 to the cost of every new apartment. In my mind, removing parking minimums is the single greatest opportunity to actually decrease the cost of new apartments. When we’re talking about areas that are well serviced by high frequency public transport, we should simply let developers choose how much parking they want to supply. They understand their customers better than anyone and they won’t make money if they put together an undesirable offer. Let home buyers tell developers how much parking they need, instead of imposing arbitrary rates that apply to the entire city in areas that are incredibly well serviced by public transport. #housingcrisis #auspol #parking #housingaffordability

How important is a guaranteed parking spot? And will this trend accelerate urban infill development? In the realm of apartment development, many cities are ditching parking mandates and are leaving the parking requirements up to the developers. Authorities are paying attention to people who argue that requiring a minimum number of parking spaces for new buildings makes it harder to build homes and makes more people choose to drive instead of using public transportation. They argue that: - Parking spaces are eyesores. - Parking spaces are very expensive and often become a cost in the rent for the renter. - Parking spaces take up too much valuable space. Read the article by NPR below to learn more. #Multifamily #DigitalMarketing #CityLiving

Just published on The Fifth Estate - Troy Uleman, principal at John McAslan + Partners, shares his thoughts on the contribution that great station design makes to local communities. What are the opportunities and risks that come with associated housing density? #sustainablecities #transportinfrastructure #housingcrisis #sydneymetro #transporthubs #densitydonewell #missingmiddle #transportorienteddesign