ABSTRACT
Parking requirements in zoning ordinances create one of the most wasteful elements of transportation and land-use systems: unoccupied parking spaces. Code reformers can work with the stakeholders to produce parking requirement reforms, parking overlay zones, or a partial deregulation without creating the opposition that might emerge in a citywide effort. In author book, Parking Reform Made Easy, he examines the origins of parking requirements, the impediments to change, and how can reform these antiquated laws. Cities such as Philadelphia, Portland, and Seattle have reformed their parking requirements and adopted limited deregulation. Deregulation shifts the approach from automatically requiring parking to not supplying it until it is economically justified. Yet parking requirement reforms are crucial to accomplishing federal, state, and regional objectives in transportation, land use, and the environment. There are indications that if local governments do not carry out reforms, states may do it for them.
