American cities of all sizes and political stripes are eliminating mandatory parking requirements, with concerns about housing supply the most common driving factor and policy catalysts critical to ensure success, reports the Parking Reform Network (PRN).
When it comes to progressive parking reforms such as ending mandatory parking requirements (MPR), “everyone’s doing it,” writes urban sustainability specialist Sarah Stuetz, in a post for the network.
The 58 cities in the United States that were “pioneering” parking reforms as of the end of 2023 ranged from metropolises like Austin, Texas, to small towns like River Rouge, Michigan (population < 1,000).
“Some are in hard-leaning Democratic counties, some in hard-leaning Republican counties,” Stuetz writes. Some have a median household income at the national poverty rate, while others have median household incomes that are triple that.
“At the end of 2023, 46% of states had at least one city that had repealed parking requirements. Five states had four or more cities with no MPRs; Oregon led the pack with 12 MPR-free communities.”
The post cites Oregon’s state-wide Climate-Friendly and Equitable Guidelines “that are pushing communities in eight metropolitan areas to undertake parking reforms” as a key driver in the state’s success.
“Currently in an exponential phase of ‘contagion,’” parking reform appears to be following the dictates of Political Diffusion Theory, which posits that “cautious legislatures observe a few innovating legislatures as they adopt policy innovations, and once proved successful, adoptions follow in a rush until only a few lagging or hesitant legislatures are left,” Stuetz writes.
“If this holds true, we can expect this number to continue to rise rapidly over the next few years, given how many municipal and state legislatures are candidates for such reforms.”
Concerns over housing supply and cost are the leading motivation for MPR, but government style or procedures sometimes hinder progress. Requirements for a supermajority to approve zoning changes, a passive city council, or an overly activist one can throw a spanner into the works. The post cites the case of Brookline, Massachusetts, whose small town meeting governance structure (which Stuetz calls “democracy on steroids”) made the reform process “contested, time-consuming. and laborious.”
As for rates of diffusion, having serious buy-in from elected officials is important to success.
The catalyzing power of aligned policies is also crucial: as an example, Stuetz identifies Massachusetts’ state-wide move to lower the required vote for zoning changes from a supermajority to a simple majority. “Another state-level catalyst was Michigan’s Redevelopment Ready Communities Program,” which funded zoning changes such as the elimination of MPRs in the city of River Rouge.
