4 Cities That Are Slashing Outdated Parking Mandates
Alameda, California, is eliminating parking mandates and even experimenting with parking maximums in certain neighborhoods. (Photo source: Jenn Heflin on Flickr.)
In nearly every American city, state and local ordinances dictate the minimum number of parking spaces required for everything from homes and restaurants to retail. Many of these regulations have remained unchanged since the 1960s, forcing today’s businesses, residents and cities to conform to the outdated priorities of planners from generations ago.
In Dallas, for example, regulations dating back to 1965 thwarted German Sierra’s plans to open a humble coffee shop and community space in 2022. Despite doing everything the city recommended to be granted a parking exemption, Dallas was unwilling to let Sierra open Graph Coffee unless he provided 18 parking spots, amounting to more square footage than his property possessed.
Sierra’s struggle highlights the uncompromising realities of parking minimums, which put undue strain on small businesses. At the same time, his story also highlights the arbitrary calculus that characterizes these regulations. For example, Dallas has drawn a distinction between a “dry cleaner” and a “laundry service” through its code, mandating that the former must provide 30% more parking than the latter even though critics argue they’re effectively the same use. Earlier this year, the Washington Post reported that San Jose, California, at one point required miniature golf courses to have 1.25 parking spaces per golf tee. In Seattle, bowling alleys needed five spaces per lane.
Ending the mandates and subsidies that require property owners to waste productive land on automobile storage is a priority for Strong Towns. We recognize that empty parking lots are financially unproductive, costly to maintain, and often in conflict with the types of places cities across North America want to be.
Fortunately, a rapidly growing number of cities across North America are beginning to question mandatory minimums, inching toward reforming or even repealing them altogether. Here are some of the communities rethinking their approaches.
Marion, Ohio
A perfect storm has hit Marion. The former Regional Planning Director —still an active voice in the community despite his retirement — checked out "Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World" from the library. The book, authored by Henry Grabar, explores how America’s obsession with parking has shaped cities, fueled housing shortages, spawned violence, and ultimately undermined economic vitality.
“A lightbulb went off,” James Walker, a planning aide for the county who nominated Marion to the 2025 Strongest Town Contest, said. “Given his knowledge of all of the zoning codes throughout the county, he instantly saw places in the code where we require way too much parking.”
The opportunity was obvious, but the whim and wisdom of a retiree alone won’t overturn decades of the status quo. Fortunately, the Marion City Planning Commission has fresh faces open to new ideas, and the city administration is committed to building a stronger, more resilient economy. “It is only a matter of time until serious minds execute serious work on reducing barriers to development like parking minimums,” Walker remarked.
Marion’s push to rethink parking minimums aligns with its new flexible zoning approach. For every foot that falls short of the minimum lot size requirements, the zoning inspector can easily adjust the requirement — no need for a lengthy appeals process. Setbacks are also tailored to fit the existing neighborhood, based on the average of surrounding lots, the nominator added. These simple, commonsense adjustments ensure that Marion’s zoning supports good development rather than creating unnecessary barriers.
Alameda, California
On November 16, 2021, the San Diego City Council unanimously voted to eliminate mandatory parking minimums for businesses in transit-priority areas and commercial districts. The following day, Alameda abolished minimums citywide.
The city of nearly 75,000 people sits had been grappling with outdated parking regulations for years before it took the courageous step to repeal them wholesale.
In 2007, the city council recognized that rigid parking mandates were doing more harm than good along Park Street and Webster Street, for example. Following the city’s minimums at the time would have meant demolishing historic buildings to make space for parking, as well as cutting driveways into sidewalks, making the area less walkable. To protect one of the city’s most celebrated commercial districts, leaders amended the regulations, allowing it to evolve without unnecessary constraints.
By 2014, the city took this thinking a step further, exploring parking maximums at Alameda Point — a former naval air station transitioning into a new neighborhood. City officials Observed that mandatory parking minimums would’ve meant replacing buildings and wildlife habitats with asphalt, while also blocking opportunities to build much-needed housing. It also would have threatened coastal resiliency and the very structures that serve as a reminder of the area’s past.
By the time 2021 rolled around, repealing parking mandates was a natural next step. Developers still include parking in new projects — often plenty of it — but now they can base the number on real demand rather than an arbitrary requirement.
While Alameda has been ahead of the curve in reforming parking policy, the conversation isn’t over. City leaders are now looking beyond mandates, exploring ways to reclaim on-street parking for better uses — bike lanes, outdoor dining and daylighting — all aimed at making public space work for people, not just cars.
Bend, Oregon
In 2022, Bend eliminated parking minimums for duplexes, triplexes and fourplexes citywide. The decision not only complied with Oregon’s Middle Housing Code (HB 2001) and Climate-Friendly and Equitable Communities (CFEC) rules — it signaled the city’s willingness to break free from outdated policies and adopt an approach suited to the needs of today’s Bend, not the Bend of 50 years ago.
That said, eliminating parking mandates wasn’t without its challenges. Bend’s leaders had to contend with concerns that the city “doesn’t have the robust public transportation system many others who dropped parking minimums have in place,” as one council member put it. But eliminating parking minimums doesn’t mean eliminating parking altogether — there is still plenty of parking in Bend and developers continue to provide more as needed. The difference is that developers, homeowners and business owners are no longer mandated to subsidize parking that may exceed their needs and desires.
Beyond policy changes, Bend has embraced new approaches to parking management that reflect actual demand rather than arbitrary formulas. In downtown and the Old Mill District, the city has focused on shared parking strategies, allowing businesses to pool parking rather than requiring each one to build separate, underutilized lots. These initiatives, coupled with investments in safer, more pleasant walking and biking infrastructure, are giving locals options when it comes to getting around town.
Bend recognizes that removing parking mandates is just the first step and that complementary reforms to zoning and land-use restriction are essential for continued progress. To support this, the city is developing the Core Area Plan, which aims to transform underused land near downtown into walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods. By permitting a broader mix of housing types — such as live-work units, small apartments and townhomes — Bend is encouraging organic, incremental growth rather than relying on large, master-planned developments.
Warrenville, Illinois
Landlocked by forest preserves, federally owned land and neighboring municipalities, Warrenville has no room to expand outward. Annexation is off the table, and extending municipal services beyond current limits isn’t feasible. With that in mind, city leaders turned their focus inward — examining local regulations to see where they could make better use of the land they already had.
“Like many municipalities, Warrenville’s development regulations led to excessive parking, commercial sprawl and land being used for unused asphalt rather than economic activity,” Jack Maszka, the city’s community planner who nominated the city of 15,000 for the Strongest Town Contest, said. Despite an abundance of existing parking, strict regulations required any new development to add even more — regardless of what was already available nearby or what could be shared between businesses.
So, in 2023, the city updated its regulations, effectively halving the required number of off-street parking in most cases. “These changes unlocked opportunities for infill development on existing lots and made the parking rules more compatible with ‘middle housing’ options,” the nominator added.
Feeling inspired? You can cheer on these cities and vote them forward in the 2025 Strongest Town Contest. And if you want your community to rethink parking minimums and more, learn how in our new housing toolkit.
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.