Is the Lot Half-Full or Half-Empty? Housing Advocates Rally to Eliminate Parking Minimums
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Some Dallasites have been waiting five years for the City’s parking code to be overhauled, so what’s another month or two, right? The City Plan Commission last week heard from 21 residents — all but two of whom voiced support for eliminating minimum parking requirements for new development — and determined they’d take up the matter again at a special-called meeting on Jan. 16.
Interim Chief Planner of Code Amendments Michael Wade presented the “high points” of the off-street parking and loading code amendment at a Dec. 5 CPC meeting.
In addition to eliminating parking minimums, staff is proposing updates to the Transportation Demand and Management Plan and design criteria. City staff members and at least a few elected officials have referred to the 1965 code as “outdated and dysfunctional,” but concerns exist about emergency vehicle access and spillover parking in neighborhoods.
Far North Dallas Councilwoman Cara Mendelsohn pointed out in a Dec. 3 newsletter that the current City code requires “a certain amount of parking based on the kind of building.” For example, parking for offices and restaurants is based on square footage, and for apartments, it is based on the number of bedrooms.
“The city is evaluating a change in these requirements, with some council members and staff advocating for NO minimums,” Mendelsohn said. “In Far North Dallas, this is problematic, as we often deal with issues related to parking spilling out into neighborhoods near multifamily housing … I have been speaking to staff and other council members about how one size does not fit all and their need for a parking reduction does not fit our need for no requirements. Perhaps a program that targets the downtown area and a district that is interested in piloting this initiative could be a compromise.”
Eliminating parking mandates doesn’t mean no new parking will ever get built, advocates with the Dallas Housing Coalition said last week.
“But it does mean we could lower development and housing costs, stop requiring the over-building of parking, and make better use of Dallas’ land for green space and other forms of transportation besides vehicles including our own two feet,” DHC leaders said in a social media post.
Here’s what open microphone speakers had to say at the Dec. 5 public hearing.
Speaking first at the open mic, Dallas Builders Association Government Affairs Director David Lehde said the trade association agrees that it’s time to improve the City’s parking minimums.
“We agree with improving the development process by removing parking minimums,” he said. “It is important to note that we do not see this as taking away parking or parking spaces. Rather, it frees up staff, the city, and the development sector to better appropriate parking as needed, especially for multifamily developments. It basically provides the freedom for them to avoid unneeded overparking. Our members will still be providing parking, especially for multifamily. That is simply due to market demand.”
Lobbyist Katie O’Brien said The Real Estate Council is supportive of removing parking minimums, a sentiment echoed by Dallas Housing Coalition organizer Bryan Tony, Dallas Neighbors for Housing founder Adam Lamont, and others.
“The current parking requirements are a key driver to higher construction costs and a barrier to new construction, particularly of housing across our city,” O’Brien said. “I want to stress that by removing parking requirements from the development code, it will not lead to a parking shortage.”
Ian Seamans, Dallas City Hall advocate for nonprofit Environment Texas, said simply that Dallas is overparked.
“Empty parking spaces serve no one,” Seamans said. “The unnecessary impervious surfaces worsen flash flooding [and] carry pollutants straight into our waterways. The excess concrete and asphalt worsen Dallas’ heat island effect.”
What’s Next For Parking Reform
The Zoning Ordinance Advisory Committee, a subcommittee of the CPC, has gone deep into the weeds of the parking code and issued a 72-page revision document. While the proposed overhaul has support from CPC members like architect Tip Housewright, commissioners Darrell Herbert and Melissa Kingston raised concerns the last time the matter was discussed.
The Jan. 16 special-called meeting is a workshop to deep-dive into code amendments, some of which could be affected by the passage of new state legislation.
The CPC is a quasi-judicial recommending body and code changes will ultimately have to be approved by the Dallas City Council.
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While Parking Minimums can be discussed and reviewed in light of Remote Work and Business Parking, I will push for and expect my City Councilman Paul Ridley and CPC member Melissa Kingston to continue to push for minimum parking requirements for multi-family housing. The Downtown and Uptown corridors are full of high-rise and townhome MF Housing units and Dallas is by no means an urban oasis with easy-to-use or access, mass transit systems like many large Northeast urban cities. We are simply not nearly dense enough for that method to work in the spread-out metro area’s of DFW and Houston. We are still a car-centric city and will remain so based on our spread-out land-use-planning and development and need cars to transit to work locations, multi-office locations, grocery and our urban homes. I have lived in Dallas urban area’s for over 25 years and have tried using DART to commute to my job in Plano and to go to restaurants to meet friends Downtown and adding 45 min at a min is simply not a good option, please when you get to your destination, you still have another 15-30 min walk or Uber ride. This idea of getting rid of parking minimums sounds good, but it’s not realistic and street parking is already at a minimum in most urban areas’ of Dallas and with “street thinning” that the city has undertaken, Amazon, UPS, Uber and Lyft street parking, it is only magnifying the issues.
What does the metro area have to do with the City of Dallas? Even if this were to pass, it has no effect on areas outside of Dallas proper.
Can’t believe people are even complaining about this, in a free market Texas. No one is saying you can’t park your car where you’d like. Maybe you need to pay a little more to get your Chevy Suburban XLT parked in a garage somewhere, but as someone that lived in Dallas proper with no car, working downtown and mockingbird station, going to grad school at SMU, and even with one kid, you know what was absurd? How craptacular it is walking across the giant empty lots between where I was going, especially in the summer with my 2 year old no less, boiling in the heat or dodging cars on my bike, so there could be a half lot empty at City Place Target or the lots forcibly subsidized by DART at mockingbird station, or all the lots to walk the kid to the new awesome parks downtown. Y’all live in a city in one of the largest metros on the continent and yet it’s easier to get around Monterey, NL, Vancouver, BC, or Portland, OR – PLACES THAT ARE A FRACTION of the size that all still have LOADS of parking!
Eliminate! Eliminate! Eliminate! Eliminate! We should also eliminate highly restrictive zoning and adopt Japans zoning ordinance.