Assistant Planning Chief Says Dallas’ Parking Code is Outdated And Dysfunctional
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Dallas planning staff is ready to revamp the city’s antiquated, one-size-fits-all parking code and anticipates bringing amendments before the City Council by the end of this year.
During a briefing Wednesday, Assistant Planning and Urban Design Director Andreea Udrea said the current code has been in place since 1965.
“We all agree that it’s outdated, dysfunctional, and provides inflexible requirements that create barriers to equitable development,” Udrea said. “It is a one-size-fits-all requirement because it’s a ratio that applies everywhere in the city and is blind to location and traffic. There are cumbersome processes for applicants and staff. They can be a barrier for redevelopment or the use of an existing building in the city, [like] an old building that we want to preserve.”
Additionally, the current parking requirements — which designate one space per bedroom for a home, one space for every 100 square feet for a restaurant, and one space for every 200 square feet for retail — place a disproportionate burden on small businesses and entrepreneurs, Udrea said. The code also impedes environmental and neighborhood walkability goals, she added.
Dallas Parking Reform
The idea for comprehensive parking reform was initiated by District 1 Councilman Chad West in 2019. The issue was widely discussed by the Zoning Ordinance Advisory Committee, a subcommittee of the City Plan Commission, in 2020 and 2021 and resurrected last month, again by West.
“This has been four years in the making,” West said Wednesday. “This is one of the biggest issues in the city. I hope that CPC and staff see the importance of expediting their review since it’s been sitting there since August 2019.”
Udrea said current parking regulations dictate that when a business or a residence is established on a property, parking and loading spaces are added on-site and not in the public right-of-way.
Councilwoman Cara Mendelsohn has expressed concerns about eliminating parking minimums, pointing out Wednesday that District 12 residents are upset by the vehicle spillover from apartment complexes into residential areas.
“Have you considered that different parts of the city have different needs?” she asked Udrea.
The staff member responded that’s why they are taking a “right-size” approach.
Mendelsohn said she may be the only council member representing a district that is fully built out. Sometimes three or four adults, each of whom have vehicles, live in a small apartment where only one parking space is required, she said.
“This is how people are surviving in Dallas today,” she said.
Mendelsohn suggested designating suburban and urban areas instead of wiping out parking minimums citywide.
Several council members noted they have suburban areas and urban areas within the districts they represent.
District 5 Councilman Jaime Resendez pointed out that surface parking and garage spaces are expensive for builders, and that cost can trickle down to a renter. Just one above-ground parking space can cost up to $40,000.
“I want to express my support for moving forward with this review,” Resendez said. “It sounds like we’re on the same page in terms of this not being a one-size-fits-all approach.”
Park(ing) Day
Director of Planning and Urban Design Julia Ryan explained that staff was not bringing forth a proposal but rather briefing the City Council on the city’s efforts to reduce parking requirements.
Prior to the briefing, the council approved a resolution designating Park(ing) Day, an international event where parking spaces are turned over to local organizations, companies, and advocates to create “parklets.”
About 30 spaces will be permitted in downtown Dallas on Sept. 14 for this year’s Park(ing) Day, Ryan said.
The planning director appeared to be supportive of overhauling the development code that governs parking. She noted that parked cars can serve as traffic-calming features and protect pedestrians.
Udreea said the city’s parking problems, “without a doubt … have to do with the fact that we do not have tools to adequately manage and to consider any type of sharing the supply that already exists.”
“It is hard to activate and place buildings that are market value and designed as they are supposed to be when they are surrounded by parking lots with no trees,” she said. “That is a big alarm signal that I have for our downtown, for example. It’s hard to spur development when the situation is what it is.”
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Residents are sick and tired of the planning staff and some leaders stating false and misleading information to push their agendas and latest fad. 1. Existing parking regs are not one-size fits all, but rather vary appropriately across all land-uses. Ironically, what staff IS proposing is indeed cookie-cutter and one-size fits all, since their one proposal has been ZERO parking minimums for ALL land-uses across the entire city. Mendelsohn is right: various areas of the city and different land-uses DO have differing needs, but the staff and some leaders are blind to those real-world needs. The CPC has responded to staff’s “zero approach” with amendments, but even those go too far. 2. Today, any property owner can apply with the Board.of Adjustment to request a reduction in parking-even up to 100% – if the property cannot feasibly provide parking. So, much of this parking reform isn’t even necessary (except to aplly staff’s blanket approach). 3. Well-designed and well placed parking does not HAVE to impede walking and several design solutions already exist to improve environmental sustainability – but property owners don’t want to do them. 4. Let’s do talk about the so-called “racial equity impact” phrase staff likes to throw around. Their proposal to eliminate or extremely reduce parking will disproportionately hit those least able to afford the inevitable increased fees for parking, especially parking for apartments and workplaces.
Parking reductions do may make sense within walking distance of train stations, downtown, and in specifically-designated Parking Districts kwhich council should consider). However, ZERO parking reqts and reductions based on the “pick a number out of the air” approach used so far (especially for apartments) are blind to resident and family life and worker needs, harmful to neighborhoods, and the anti-thesis of insightful, fact-based planning based on DALLAS. Our city is NOT Portland or Minneapolis or Austin. Dallas does not have a broad network of successful public meeting transit that residents can rely on – and won’t for years (decades?). Hopefully, residents will tell their City Councilmember to bring sanity and appropriate levels to these extreme and narrow-focused reductions in parking reform.
Don’t Austin our Dallas.