Toward Zero Parking: Challenging Conventional Wisdom for Multifamily

The rising popularity of human-powered transportation, walking and bicycling, and widespread availability of ride-hailing services like Lyft and Uber plus car-sharing services like Zipcar and Getaround, and the introduction of same-day delivery services have all reduced the need for individuals to own—and park—cars.

At the same time, costs of construction are at historic highs in dense urban areas, creating a challenge for developers to meet housing demand. Individual unit sizes are shrinking in response, allowing greater density. However, with smaller units, the number of parking spaces goes up, too, if traditional parking ratios hold. High construction expenses result in a very high per-space cost for parking spaces, especially for structured parking, which can run $50,000 or more for a single space.

In response to these factors, municipalities are changing the way they handle parking. Cities around the United States are eliminating minimum parking requirements for new developments.