The vast majority of Americans believe housing affordability is a significant problem – roughly three quarters of the country, in one survey from the Bipartisan Policy Center. Most people also say they are not hearing enough about the housing affordability crisis from leading policymakers and politicians, according to another poll commissioned by the Center for Popular Democracy. But while we may not feel seen and heard on these issues, the American public is strongly supportive of several specific policy solutions to the problem, according to a Pew research survey: 86% of Americans support expedited building permits and 81% support making it easier to convert commercial spaces to residential use.
These policies are looked at positively because Americans understand supply and demand. Faster construction and easier repurposing of existing buildings would promote housing affordability by increasing the number of housing units. As supply increases to meet demand, market pressures should bring prices down.
But there is another, less-heralded policy move that could further accelerate that market correction: Eliminating or reducing minimum off-street parking requirements for housing development. The Pew survey found strong majority support for the change, but it lags other popular ideas by about 20 percentage points – suggesting an opportunity to educate the public on the positive effects of changes to parking rules.
Parking requirements were implemented for a good purpose – to protect small businesses by keeping street spaces free for shoppers – but current trends show a lesser need for off-street spots, especially in areas where alternate forms of public transportation become more accessible and affordable for Americans. Parking minimums are intended to ensure that sufficient parking is available for each development, but are delivering more than we need. And all those empty parking spaces add up to significant square footage that could be used for more housing.
Planners Daniel Hess and Jeffrey Rehler found that roughly 50% of parking spots in mixed-use developments in Buffalo, New York were unused. This inefficiency is very expensive: Developers spend about $10,000 on each above-ground parking space and $25,000 per spot on below-ground parking, according to UCLA professor Donald Shoup’s research on “the high cost of ‘free’ parking” in the 1990s. Those developer costs get passed on as higher prices for renters and homebuyers – whether the spaces are getting used or not.
Rightsizing parking rules can also foster wider social and economic benefits beyond the obvious first-order effect of encouraging a greater supply of housing to drive down prices. Less land devoted to parking also promotes walkability. This may increase spending in local businesses and boost the local economy. Building up metropolitan areas to be more pedestrian-friendly and conducive to bikers poses the opportunity to reduce personal CO2 emissions by 25%. A reduction in vehicles would also allow for better regulation of air temperature through more green areas due to less parking lot area being occupied by empty asphalt.
Urban planners have talked about these ideas for three decades. But now, state and local governments are starting to actually act upon these opportunities.
The Live Local Act, a land use reform legislation in Florida passed in 2023, attempts to address the inefficiencies created by parking minimums. The Act recommends that local governments consider reducing parking requirements for developments within a half-mile radius of public transit stops.
The Live Local Act was the first effort the state made to have any unified structure to housing in Florida, and local activists are seeing positive effects already.
“The general interest in what local governments can do on housing affordability policy has soared” since the law passed, according to Kody Glazer, Chief Legal and Policy Officer at the Florida Housing Coalition (FHC), which provides technical assistance to governments and nonprofits.
“The LLA has increased demand for our services greatly,” Glazer said in an interview. “[People want to know,] how do we apply this act? How can I enact an ordinance or policy where I live?”
Similar efforts to deregulate parking have been made in Washington, DC, to lower the costs of government subsidies and increase green space through the reduction of parking minimums for affordable housing units. Once the city’s Zoning Commission approves the change, developers’ interest in profit will better align with the public need for a greater supply of housing.
New townhomes and apartment buildings have sprung up around Miami since the city exempted small building developments from the previous requirement to provide approximately 1.5 parking spaces for each unit. That meant a four-story, 80-unit apartment building in a multi-use zone would have to provide 120 off-street parking spots, each of which must be 9 feet by 18 feet. That’s a total of 19,440 square feet dedicated to parking – the equivalent of two-dozen additional 800 square foot apartments.
The city of Dallas is starting to recognize these same potential benefits, designating September 15 as Park(ing) Day to call attention to the issue and directing the Dallas City Manager to look into eliminating parking minimum requirements in the city.
As local leaders explore the opportunities and challenges involved in updating parking rules to match actual parking need, they must also beware of some potential pitfalls. They should be especially careful around what sorts of development can tap into parking exemptions, to ensure developers don’t steer that new capacity to those who need it less. Though the Live Local Act provides incentives for developments that serve low-income communities, it also allows developers to tap the law’s benefits while catering to households earning 120% area median income (AMI).
Still, when properly calibrated to prioritize both lower-income households and the “missing middle” – renters earning too much to qualify for mainline affordable housing policies but too little to afford housing developed with higher-income families in mind – zoning and planning changes to bring parking requirements in line with actual human behavior can unlock trapped capacity to everyone’s benefit.
Amanda Flynn was an NCRC communications and development intern.
Photo courtesy of John Grimm on Flickr.
