Quote:
Originally Posted by The North One
Yeah that's what concerns me. Parking lots eventually get developed, parking garages get demolished all the time. When was the last time a parking podium tower was razed and replaced with a better development? I don't think that has ever happened. When large buildings get built with parking on the bottom it stays there.
Really hope Austin city council is at least paying attention. Does the city have huge parking requirements? Detroit is going through a massive zoning overhaul to reduce or eliminate parking minimums. Every single time I peak into an Austin thread I see a parking garage castle at the bottom. Austinites deserve better.
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Austin doesn't have any minimum parking requirements Downtown. It is the market that is driving the over parking. Many of the newer buildings have both underground and above ground parking. The underground parking is not just more expensive, it is often infeasible to go deeper due to ground water and geology.
What Austin City Council could do is institute a parking MAXIMUM Downtown. They could also change the calculation of FAR to include above ground parking, so developers would have to pay larger density bonus fees. Both actions could have the unintended consequence of making development in places like the Domain more financially attractive than Downtown, which could lead to disinvestment Downtown.