Showing posts with label downtown. Show all posts
Showing posts with label downtown. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 6, 2019

Parking Requirement are Terrible for Downtowns

No, really. But they are ESPECIALLY terrible for historic main streets and down towns.

Sandpoint, Idaho removed minimum parking requirements a decade ago. The city's director of planning describes what happened since.

The 2009 approval of a 60,000 square foot, 3-story bank headquarters in the heart of downtown ended up requiring 218 parking spaces. Because only 110 were provided (which was plenty), the bank was subjected to in-lieu parking fees totaling over $700,000. Well, being bankers, they soon realized the cheaper alternative was to buy up adjacent properties and demolish the buildings for surface lots. Consequently, small businesses were evicted and the much-beloved downtown historic development pattern was diminished.