Laserfiche WebLink
I <br />Introduction <br />nevitably, questions about parking appear among the top five <br />inquiries made each year of the Planning Advisory Service. <br />There are 16 PAS Reports listed under parking in the subject index <br />for the series (http://www.planning.org/pas/subject.html) and nu- <br />merous other reports include sections that discuss parking. <br />The prevalence of questions and the number of publications about <br />parking should not be surprising. In U.S. society, the reliance on <br />the automobile and accommodating auto travel has placed an em- <br />phasis on the built environment that supports, and is supported <br />by, automobile use. The standards that require development to put <br />in place a supply of parking spaces to serve the demand created by <br />automobile users have dimensions that affect a community’s eco- <br />nomic development, environment, design, and social equity, among <br />others. <br />The economic dimensions include the cost to build and maintain <br />parking and customer access to the goods and services provided <br />by local businesses. Environmentally, there is growing sensitivity <br />toward impervious surfaces, especially parking lots, which can add <br />to the amount and velocity of precipitation runoff and carry within <br />it chemicals harmful to water sources. Additionally, there are cost <br />implications to treating this increased runoff and the pollution that <br />results from it. The prevalence of parking lots and structures, their <br />spacing within the streetscape, their landscaping, and their archi- <br />tectural design can have dramatic effects on urban design, espe- <br />cially in districts with distinctive character. Standards directly affect <br />118