06-16-2025 - Agenda Packet Planning Commission - Planning Commission Packet

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2 the amount of space and the size of structures dedicated to parking. Fi- nally, in terms of socioeconomics, access to parking can affect the funding, scheduling, and use of alternative modes of transportation. For example, if parking readily accommodates all demand, it may act as a disincentive to the use of transportation other than the automobile, which, in turn, could reduce the use of public transit. The people most likely to need access to public transit to commercial services and human services might then see their access negatively affected by this deference to the automobile and automobile users. While planners and developers have usually recognized these dimen- sions of the parking infrastructure, the public has of late become aware of the role parking standards play in shaping a community. And that public is asking for change. We chose to update our parking standards information in a new PAS Report in large part because planners who have posed inquir- ies to PAS over the past 10 years—the period in which we reviewed inquir- ies posted on the topic of parking—have reported a change in philosophy in their communities. Many suggest that residents, developers, and lenders find parking standards to be excessive, meaning that these citizens some- times perceive that requirements result in more spaces than are necessary to meet demand or in “wasted” space that might be put to better use. Gath- ering standards from a number of communities both geographically and demographically diverse is our attempt to give planners a range of stan- dards. With that range in hand, planners should be able to offer standards to their constituencies that better fit the goals of their community, or of a district, a neighborhood, or a range of uses within that community. The population figures we provide here are drawn from The County and City Data Book: 2000: A Statistical Abstract Supplement, 13th edition, updated through March 2002 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2001). Another factor that has played a role in our decision to review parking standards is a change in development patterns, particularly the increas- ing prevalence of mixed-use developments in which parking can be shared. The chapter in this report on the dynamics of off-street parking discusses the methods that some communities use to help calculate shared parking arrangements. We have also made an effort to address two important types of parking standards that were relatively ignored in previous reports: parking stan- dards for bicycles and maximum parking requirements. At the beginning of this report, you will find three lists of uses: all the uses listed in the report; those uses for which we have provided bicycle parking standards; and those uses for which we have provided minimum and maximum park- ing standards. The latter two make it easy to find those uses with bicycle and maximum standards in addition to the names and populations of the communities that employ them. We provide bicycle standards for the same reason we provide auto stan- dards: to give planners some idea of the range of standards in use in com- munities other than their own. And we hope to encourage planners to address requirements for the supply of bicycle parking with input from residents and business owners in their community where such standards do not exist. Maximum requirements for parking limit the total number of spaces required by a use. As noted in this report’s chapter on the dynamics of off- street parking, parking maximums have been used most extensively in downtown areas, but establishing a maximum standard can be an effec- tive tool for communities interested in managing stormwater, increasing densities, and meeting transportation demand management objectives throughout the community. 119