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Letting the free market provide parking By Ray Chirgwin Dec 18, 2022 12:00 AM A A Since the 1940s, Oregon cities have required landowners to build a minimum amount of parking when they developed their land. This is known as “government mandated parking minimums.” These government mandates created a huge supply of parking at no cost to the cities while forcing landowners to pave most of their valuable land with unused parking spaces. Parking lots are expensive to build, and the cost is being imposed on landowners, developers, tenants, and everyday citizens waiting at a stop light. It is estimated that in America, there are eight parking spaces for every car, covering up to 30% of our cities. The more parking we have, the more we are dependent on driving because buildings are pushed farther apart. So, the rules mandating parking not only influence the way we view transport but also shape our urban landscapes. Look at any property from the air, and you will see an awful lot of land taken up by parking spaces that are never used. Aerial imagery archives on Google Earth speak volumes to Medford properties overburdened by excessive parking. Some examples taken from various dates and times include: Northgate Marketplace (Trader Joesand REI) — 25% to 53% full. Walmart — 31% to 40% full. Asante Medical Arts Building — 4% to 41% full. Typical east Medford suburb (on-street parking) — 6% to 11% full. Municipalities don’t have any accurate method for setting parking requirements because it isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. There is really no way to say how much parking every building needs. In essence, mandated parking minimums stem from government policies based on an 80-year-old pseudoscience which has remained with us ever since. As an example of unrealistic mandated parking, a landowner wanting to build a 1,000-square-foot neighborhood café would be forced to build a 3,000-square-foot parking lot. If their business model assumes customers will be walking from the surrounding neighborhood or parking on the streets, then the parking lot is likely to be underutilized. Instead of paving excessive parking, the landowner could have used that land for a more profitable amenity such as an outdoor patio for their customers’ enjoyment. Recently, the state of Oregon finally gave cities an opportunity to remove all mandated parking and let the free market provide parking where there is demand. Unfortunately, Medford city officials are pursuing a lawsuit against the state involving this issue. Medford officials are stoking confusion by misreading the term “eliminating mandated parking” as “limiting or eliminating parking.” In fact, nothing in the new state rule says that parking can’t be built or that parking will be taken away. It simply says that cities can’t mandate parking to be built. Under the new state rule, landowners will have the freedom to build parking that is compatible with the conditions of their project. In some rare scenarios, a landowner might decide to provide zero parking and have great success. In most cases, they will still build parking. Property owners know best how to accomplish effective parking for their own property and will soon be free from cookie-cutter government mandates. Ray Chirgwin is an architect with KSW Architects of Ashland. He wrote this on KSW’s behalf.