Parking Spaces / Community Places: Finding the Balance Through Smart Growth Solutions

Many communities are evaluating parking issues as part of a broader process of reevaluating their overall goals for growth. Typical parking regulations and codes require a set amount of parking for a given square footage or number of units. It is common for such regulations to assume all trips will be by private automobile, ignoring the neighborhood's particular mix of uses, access to transit and walking, and context within the region. Such inflexible parking requirements can force businesses to provide unneeded parking that wastes space and money and harms the environment

Many communities are evaluating parking issues as part of a broader process of reevaluating their overall goals for growth. They want and need new residents and jobs - for vitality, economic growth, and other reasons - but they need to decide how and where to accommodate them. In cities, towns, and countryside, new and newly rediscovered development patterns offer solutions. In many places, walkable town centers that offer stores, workplaces, and housing in close proximity are replacing malls and office parks, offering shops and dining along with places to live and work. New neighborhoods offer different housing types and daily conveniences within a pleasant, safe walking distance. Vacant, underused and contaminated sites can be reclaimed and benefit their communities with new jobs and housing, improved recreational opportunities, and increased fiscal stability. Many communities are working to offer choices to residents, so they can take a train, ride a bike, or walk instead of driving, if that is what is best for them and their families. Whether the resulting development patterns are called smart growth, quality growth, or balanced growth, they work by creating great places.

Communities and developers recognize that compact, mixed-use, walkable places need parking to thrive. Retail activity in particular requires convenient parking spaces that can handle high turnover. Businesses almost always need some parking for their employees, but the amount needed can vary widely. The need for parking may shift throughout the day as people come to shop, employees head to work, and residents go out for the evening. Residents and employees in more compact areas usually own fewer cars and drive less than is typical in conventional developments. Yet typical parking regulations and codes simply require a set amount of parking for a given square footage or number of units, assuming all trips will be by private automobile and ignoring the neighborhood's particular mix of uses, access to transit and walking, and context within the metropolitan region. Such inflexible parking requirements can force businesses to provide unneeded parking that wastes space and money. The space and money devoted to unnecessary parking could be used to accommodate other homes, businesses, shopping, or recreational opportunities in the community. In some cases, rigid parking standards can discourage or even prevent development, because providing it is just too expensive -- and developers are usually offered no alternative.

In cities and counties across the country, inflexible minimum parking requirements are the norm -- but they represent a barrier to better development, including redevelopment of vacant city land and contaminated sites. EPA developed this guide for local government officials, planners, and developers in order to: