L.A. Proposes Eliminating Parking Requirements Downtown
 

I think this would definitely be a game-changer for downtown Los Angeles.

And of course this wouldn't eliminate parking completely; it just means that developers could include as much or as little parking as they want; they would not be subject to parking minimums.


From Streetsblog LA:

L.A. Proposes Eliminating Parking Requirements Downtown

By Joe Linton
Oct 31, 2019


Today, the L.A. City Planning Department (DCP) released its full draft Downtown Community Plan, called DTLA 2040. Once approved, the plan would eliminate parking requirements for all of downtown Los Angeles.

DCP has been working on the new DTLA 2040 plan since 2017. It is the first city communtiy plan update that incorporates the city’s new modular planning code, developed under re:code LA. DTLA 2040 is an update to two existing community plans: Central City and Central City North.

[...]

Link: https://la.streetsblog.org/2019/10/3...ents-downtown/

it will be -- any steps toward ingraining that this is a highly urban area and cars are not a priority that must be considered in your development is good news.

We've been waiting for this for years and will be such a welcome change. The entire dynamic of how buildings interact with the street, the form of downtown LA and the way we use our streets and sidewalks will be effected in a positive way.

^ no question. it will encourage more urban form and use of space. and i bet you will see the changes sooner than later, based on all the development i saw popping up out there last visit.

Absolutely. I have lived downtown for almost 12 years now. The amount of positive change has been remarkable. I used to see 10 people on sundays... now the city is busy 24 /7 and getting busier with every new project that opens up. Its amazing to see entire blocks being rehabbed and brought to life. I think these new rules will also lead to much more interesting architecture now that so much money doesnt have to be spent on parking and masking podiums, as well as allowing for more interesting integration to the street since there wont be ramps and cutouts

Now can we eliminate parking requirements in NYC?
The fact that they exist here is crazy.

Don't expect parking podiums to disappear any time soon. A lot of developers exceed the minimums as it is, due to market demand.

This would be huge for urbanity and affordability. Parking requirements are often the #1 reason why smaller units don't pencil.

This is an important point that needs to be driven home again and again so that it doesn’t galvanize the paranoid “anti-war-on-cars” faction. And why this move wasn’t made years ago is beyond me. Developers should be able to include no parking (if they so choose) at their own risk... isn’t that what free-market capitalism is all about?

These ridiculous parking minimums are what give rise to these ugly, monolithic shitboxes with underwhelming total unit counts. By lifting this mandate, you’re creating conditions for more affordable housing and reduced carbon emissions without actually “punishing” the pro-auto crowd.

This. In Miami's case, the city eliminated parking minimums in large buildings (need a waver) in certain transit friendly districts years ago (basically the core) but obviously there are still parking podiums galore. A few towers have forgone parking but when you are building condos, i guess the developers feel its easier to sell the units with deeded spaces (that people can rent out if they don't need).

That's quite an indictment of a city, frankly. Several cities routinely do buildings with a lot fewer parking spaces than units, and sometimes none at all. It's bizarre when a major, growing downtown doesn't do the same.

I'd be optimistic that LA developers would jump on this more quickly than Miami developers. DTLA has a bigger job base, and the city has better transit. A lot of LA developers also work in other West Coast cities that have more-urban expecations.

Thank God (still an Athiest here).

Parking requirements in downtown are utter BS unless you're considering a post-war historic building with no adjoinging parking deck.

Some, especially in the Sun Belt might sob about how everyone drives but if you remove these parking requirements, people WILL find ways to make it to dense business districts. Sad that you have to force their hand, but after too many Ubers, Lyfts, or cabs, they'll realize they can't afford single passenger transpo. That's what happened in Tuscaloosa soon before I left for Birmingham, though the issue was simply a lack of parking, not a lack of parking requirements. People started realizing that it was too much of a hassle to drive to downtown and either started walking or began using public transit...

As for those post-war historic buildings, putting a parking garage next to each one is a perfect recipe to (a) make projects not pencil, and (b) make the neighborhood suck when they do pencil.

The adaptive reuse properties were never required to have parking. That was part of the adaptive reuse ordinance that kicked off the dtla boom in 1999

It would be interesting to see the percentage of people who live Downtown currently that own a car and keep it Downtown.

São Paulo had parking requirements since the 1960’s or so. Just now, with the new zoning law approved in 2015, the city got rid of this nonsense.

As result, even with the 2015-2016 Brazilian economic depression, the city is undergoing a construction boom of new small apartments with no parking and they are still very expensive indicating there are lots of room to grow.

Why cities thought it was a good idea to force the market to build in a way that damaged them?

Important question.

I own a car but barely use it. I usually use my gf's car when I do(keeping miles off mine). So, since we have two cars in our parking garage downtown, do we qualify as car-centric...or whatever? She walks to work and I bike to school on any day that isn't raining usually.

If there’s any place in LA where you could eliminate parking minimums, it’s DTLA... not sure you could realistically do it anywhere else, given LA’s insane job sprawl. LA has a smaller percentage of jobs downtown than even Sunbelt peers like Houston or Atlanta. But at least downtown residents have access to not only downtown jobs, but also several outlying centers (Culver City, Santa Monica, North Hollywood, etc)

I never understood this logic. Eliminating parking minimums would result in developers building enough parking to meet parking demand. It's not as if removing parking minimums equates to banning parking. In other words, the same sprawlly crap with ample parking will continue to get built with or without parking minimums.

Construction lenders will also insists on some level of parking if the market analysis shows that a particular development will need x amount of spaces to be a success.

City Planning like to think they're in control here, but all they're really doing with parking minimums is encouraging car ownership by providing more parking than what the market demands.

The result will also be buildings without parking. You can offer cheaper price points that way, particularly on small sites. The economics of micro units just about demands little or no parking, so you'll open up that potential in a big way.

None of this is theoretical, except how it applies locally.