ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how parking requirements can dramatically increase the cost of constructing new buildings. Off-street parking requirements have put a cloak of invisibility over the cost of parking spaces. Parking spaces outnumber cars, and each space can cost much more than a car parked in it, but planners continue to set parking requirements without considering this cost. The average parking requirement for shopping centers in these eight cities is only 2.8 spaces per 1,000 square feet, which is lower than in most American cities. The high cost of structured parking gives developers a strong incentive to build in low-density areas where cheaper land allows surface parking, thus encouraging sprawl. Where land is expensive and the parking is underground, the high cost of the required parking per apartment creates an economic incentive to build larger and more expensive apartments than they would without parking requirements.
