This Guide and companion publications grew out of a
common experience of the affordable housing development community, that the issue
of parking is typically one of the most significant barriers in the housing
development process. Minimum parking requirements in local zoning codes,
developers say, are increasing development costs, reducing attainable density,
detracting from design quality, and reducing the amount of amenities which
developers can provide residents. Worst of all, if developers are serving
communities with lower vehicle ownership rates, then they are being forced to
build parking which their tenants don't need.
NPH began its research in the summer of 2000, exploring how it
could address this issue. A focus group in August 2000 among developers,
architects, housing policy makers and planners identified 3 principal audiences
who could benefit from tailored publications: the public, whose concern
about parking and traffic impacts of new housing often drive local policy; local
policy makers, including elected officials, planning commissioners, and
planners; and, developers, especially affordable housing developers,
whose arguments that a transit oriented location and a unique population will
require less parking, are often met with skepticism.
There are three primary resources that resulted from this work, two
publications, and this website. This Guide, as a website, is intended to help developers, particularly those developing
affordable and special needs housing, be more effective around the issue of
parking. Specifically, the Guide has the following goals:
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Goals:
- To equip developers and planners with the data, tools, and principles to be effective
when addressing the issue of residential parking to audiences such as
communities, city councils and financial
institutions.
- To help developers and planners assess parking need at proposed
developments.
- To provide a clearinghouse for experience, data, and resources built
upon by the users of this site so that developers and planners can leverage off of each others
accumulated
expertise in this area.
- To provide strategies for reducing or managing vehicle ownership demand
after a property is developed. Beyond managing demand, these
strategies are about being fair to residents, providing better service to
residents, and reducing the spillover impacts of development on
communities.
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The other two resources, are available here for
downloading:
| Rethinking Residential Parking: Myths & Facts |
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This short report is for general public education.
Available in both small booklet and pamphlet form, Rethinking Residential
Parking, presents research findings and strategies in jargon-free, concise
form. It includes case studies of successful policies and
developments. This report is for use by planners and developers
dealing with communities concerned about the impact of new housing. |
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| Parking
& Housing: Best Practices for Increasing Housing Affordability and
Achieving Smart Growth |
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This report is an analysis of how parking impacts housing affordability. Given the joint
transportation and housing crises in the Bay Area, the report takes an
updated look at the role of minimum parking requirements for
housing. In most cases, minimum parking requirements do not reflect
important factors like income, age, density and access to transit.
It suggests a portfolio of strategies for all Bay Area communities to deal
with parking and housing. |
This Guide and companion publications are the result of research conducted by the Non-Profit
Housing Association of Northern California. The primary researcher on
the project was Ryan Russo, who was
supported by the Sustainable
Communities Leadership Program (SCLP) and the Berkeley Program on Housing and Urban Policy
(BPHUP).
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