As the housing debate rages statewide, one of the issues seldom addressed is that of “free parking”.
It’s one thing to increase
housing density to hopefully bring us more affordable domiciles, but we have to
remember that parking must be part of the equation… properly managed and
priced.
Critics argue that each parking space
in a new development takes up about 325 sq feet. That means 2 or 3 spaces could require as
much land as a studio apartment or small store.
And the cost of parking just adds to construction costs: as much as $10,000 per space on a surface
lot, $50,000 on a parking structure and $100,000 in an underground lot.
Consider Bridgeport where as
many as 200 homeless are living on the streets.
To encourage more housing development, in 2022 the city’s Planning &
Zoning Commission eliminated minimum on-site parking for new developments. That has many fearing street battles over
limited curbside parking if empty lots turn into multi-family apartments
without built-in, on-site parking.
On one
site on East Main Street a NYC-based developer wants to construct 74
apartments (and street-level retail space) in a five story building with no
parking. On average that would mean 60 –
80 new cars in the neighborhood.
Of course, if developments
were to be located near existing public transportation, residents wouldn’t need
as many cars to get to school, work and shopping. But that’s a siting and transit funding issue.
Donald Shoup of UCLA (who died
recently at age 86) published that in Los Angeles including parking in housing
construction increased apartment rents by $200–$500 per month due to added
construction and financing costs.
As he wrote in his seminal
book, The High Cost of Free Parking
(2005), free parking is never really free. Building more parking, like widening highways,
just encourages more use of cars, adding to the problem.
In downtown Hartford it’s estimated that 22% of land is dedicated to parking. And that’s just surface lots (costing drivers $100 per month), not parking structures ($200 per month) or street parking ($240 per month). Compare those costs to a monthly bus pass on CTtransit ($63) or CTRail ($267 for unlimited rides from/to New Haven).
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Parking lots in downtown Hartford |
Look at your own town or
city. Being selfish, we all want parking
right in front of our destination… as close as possible to the front door. Ever notice when you go someplace new, like a
theater or event space, their websites give driving directions but seldom show
mass transit options?
None of the solutions to this parking
problem will be popular:
PRICE PARKING AT MARKET RATES: Let the demand (and limited supply)
determine the actual cost of parking. If
the lot is always full (forcing people to drive around), it’s too cheap.
CHARGE FOR PARKING AT WORK /
SCHOOL: Rather
than employers eating the cost, make their employee drivers pay a share. That would right-size the true cost of
driving vs taking mass transit. Reward
employees who don’t drive by subsidizing their transit costs, exactly like CDOT’s
CTpass
program does.
As I say… not popular, but
worth thinking about.
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