Around the country, cities are throwing out their own parking requirements, hoping to end up with less parking – and more affordable housing, better transit, and walkable neighborhoods.

The city council in Austin, Texas recently proposed something that could seem like political Kryptonite: getting rid of parking minimums.

Those are the rules that dictate how much off-street parking developers must provide — as in, a certain number of spaces for every apartment and business.

Around the country, cities are throwing out their own parking requirements – hoping to end up with less parking, more affordable housing, better transit, and walkable neighborhoods.

    • dogslayeggs@lemmy.world
      7·
      1 year ago

      This allows more housing to be built on the same plot of land, which lowers the price of housing. I would venture to guess most poor people would prefer cheaper housing over guaranteed parking.

      • TORFdot0@lemmy.worldEnglish
        52·
        1 year ago

        Cheaper housing doesn’t help if you can’t get a job because you can’t afford to have a car because you can’t park it. Of course the opposite is also true but our society is already biased toward car ownership

        • dogslayeggs@lemmy.world
          5·
          1 year ago

          I mean, in Los Angeles they just got rid of the parking requirement for ADUs, which allows many more of those to be built. I had no way to build an ADU on my property before because it required off-street parking. Now it doesn’t, so I’m beginning construction of more housing. I’m not the only one, either. I know multiple people building new properties to rent after this change.