"Hour of Action" Campaign Aims To Turn the Tide of Bad Parking Policies
(Source: Parking Reform Network.)
It’s time to abolish mandatory parking minimums! The Parking Reform Network is partnering with Climate Changemakers for an “Hour of Action.” Read more about it and join in here.
In almost every American city, for virtually every type of land use from residential to restaurant to retail, the minimum number of parking built is mandated by state and municipal ordinances dating back to the 1960s. These antiquated mandates not only rob property owners of choice, according to Tony Jordan, president of the Parking Reform Network (PRN), but they’re often arbitrary.
For example, Dallas, Texas, has drawn a distinction between a “dry cleaner” and a “laundry service” through its code, mandating that the former provide 30% more parking than the latter. “These are effectively the same land use, so it just doesn’t make sense,” Jordan says, adding that a laundry service is already required to provide one spot for every 300 square feet of space. With a single parking spot averaging around 350 square feet, this means that, at minimum, surface parking is required to be larger than the establishment itself.
In addition to being arbitrary, these parking mandates are difficult to calculate. In the same city, a church must accommodate a parking stall for every 333 square feet if the overall space is under 5,000 square feet. Otherwise, the minimum amount of parking mandated by law is determined by how many parishioners fit in a pew. In the absence of pews, another formula is offered. Calculating parking minimums for schools, shelters, hotels, and banks likewise involves awkward math.
Dallas is hardly an anomaly. Across the country, parking mandates cause headaches for city staff who spend their days filtering through variance requests, push up the costs of construction for new housing, and reinforce auto centricity in cities that have adopted comprehensive plans to advance exactly the opposite. In fact, that’s why dozens of American cities are repealing the mandates altogether.
New York City is the latest and largest city to move towards repealing parking minimums. Earlier this year, Willmar—a city of approximately 20,000 in the middle of Minnesota—eliminated its parking mandates, too. The formula was so unpopular that waiving the requirement for parking was Willmar’s most requested petition. From Nashville to Culver City and Raleigh to Anchorage, parking reform is snowballing.
Strong Towns advocates in Birmingham want their city to be next. “Removing mandates give communities more options about how they move forward,” Daniel Christiansen of Alabama Urbanists said. “In Birmingham specifically, as a city that's both Southern and Rust Belt, we have the challenges of a depopulated core and old infrastructure.”
For Alabama Urbanists, eliminating parking mandates would not only award a struggling downtown adaptability, it’d help the city address its environmental goals. For one, the geometry of automobile storage and the auto-centric design it reinforces threatens Alabama’s natural areas. Christensen also brings up how the abundance of asphalt—27% of Birmingham is parking lots according to the PRN—worsens floods and rains. That’s why he’s participating in the Hour of Action.
The Hour of Action is an email-writing campaign championed by Climate Changemakers in collaboration with the Parking Reform Network. The goal is to demonstrate to legislators that the tide is turning away from the parking mandates of the past.
Climate Changemakers crafted scripts that hit on points relevant for elected leaders of all political persuasions, highlight what progress the city has made, and outline why it’s important that the next step be reforming parking citywide.
“The Hour of Action campaign is great since it will be an opportunity to engage with a wide variety of local organizations that are already active in environmental advocacy and natural resources conservancy,” Christensen added. “It's also perfectly timed for us due to Birmingham currently exploring removing parking mandates with their ‘Right Size Parking’ initiative.”
The Alabama Urbanists are planning to endeavor their Hour of Action in mid- to late October, which is when the Parking Reform Network is planning to host a virtual session for interested advocates. Their calendar can be found at this link.
At the same time, you can advocate for parking reform at any time. For those interested in community support, Climate Changemakers offers weekly hour-long virtual meet-ups. And for those ready to start the conversation with their local lawmakers, access the entire campaign here.
Asia (pronounced “ah-sha”) Mieleszko serves as a Staff Writer for Strong Towns. A dilettante urbanist since adolescence, she's excited to convert a lifetime of ad-hoc volunteerism into a career. Her unconventional background includes directing a Ukrainian folk choir, pioneering synaesthetic performances, photographing festivals, designing websites, teaching, and ghostwriting. She can be found wherever Wi-Fi is reliable, typically along Amtrak's Northeast Corridor.