Oregon Active Transportation

Summit

April 21, 2014

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Parking, parking everywhere: What better management could mean for active

transportation

Discussion Points

• Numbers on parking – what is actually happening

• Factors that lead to overbuilding

• Implications of cost

• Potential solutions

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What is happening….

• Upwards of 2 Billion

No. of parking Spaces in US

• About 20%Urban land devoted to

parking

• About 3 : 1Common

suburban ratio of parking SF to

building SF

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Why so much parking…Overbuilding of

parking

High Vehicle Ownership

Code requirements/Lan

d Use Planning

Single use parking facilities

Market norms

Lack of parking management/data

Undersupply anxiety

Alternative Modes

Stigmatized

• Parking is very expensive to build.

• Overbuilt parking increases development cost and negatively influences access to transit.

• An oversupply of parking encourages driving and congests

our roadways.

WHY IS RIGHT SIZED PARKING IMPORTANT?

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• Average overbuild 25% - 40% (mostly surface parking)

• Adds unnecessary cost to project development

• Inefficient use of land

• Surface @ $8,000 per stall can add $1.96 - $2.18 per foot to leasing cost (annual).

• Garage @ $30,000 per stall can add $6.00 - $7.30 per foot to leasing cost (annual)

Why we should get it right……

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Why we should get it right……

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1,400 commercial spaces

2,320 residential spaces

When these findings are applied to a typical suburban project with 150 units, roughly $800,000 would be spent on unused

parking.

On average, we found that multi-family parking is supplied at 1.4 spaces per dwelling unit but is only used at about 1 space per unit.

Why we should get it right…..

OLDMODEL

• Code drives demand.

• No clear understanding of demand.

• “Demand” is stalls built rather than stalls actually used.

• Lack of localized true demand data – left to use national models that are severely flawed.

• Self fulfilling prophecy (code and appraisal)

• Transitioning to more dense parking in suburban areas will require innovation and partnership.

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What the experts say*…

* From 2012 King County Right Sizing Parking Interviews

Parking requirements Revisiting past practice

Reliance on rule of thumb, national averages, rates of competing cities (except Portland Central City)

Apparent precision with weak empirical basis

Interplay of city requirements, developer expectations, community expectations

Driven by lack of on-street parking management and pricing

What’s next….

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Today Tomorrow

• Continued reliance on surface parking will not support suburban visions

• “The market” will not support structured parking development in suburban settings.

• Solution is in addressing myths, realities and initiating innovative planning

• “True demand” occupancy by land use type and area

• Stop relying on ITE or other cities view of demand

Develop local demand data base

• Reduce minimums• Reduce land use categories• Eliminate credits

Simplify code parking

requirements• Suburban development cannot pencil

garages• Tie public investment with code minimums

(fee-in-lieu)

Invest in District Garages

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Moving Forward – Changing Status Quo

Calibrate code to vision

• Visions don’t just happen• Create coalitions, partners and educate on

realities and trade-offs of adopted visions

Thanks