5 Resources for Ending Parking Minimums

Whether you're a city staffer, nonprofit leader or just a strong citizen who cares, there's something you can do to advocate for an end to parking minimums in your town. Here are 5 ideas to get you started:

3. Write to your local papers and push for an end to parking minimums.

One of the ways to get your voice heard is through your local paper. You’d be surprised by the impact of a letter. We have Strong Towns members who were able to shift the direction of planning decisions in their cities because they spoke up with a blog post or letter. We encourage you to look into the parking minimums laws in your city and write your local paper about ending them, especially if there is a pertinent piece of local legislation up for discussion. With Black Friday fast approaching, your local paper is probably going to be publishing a few stories about hasty shoppers running each other over to get to the latest Xbox. Why not give them something better and more productive to share?

Image Credit: #BlackFridayParking

4. Read these stories of towns that ended parking minimums for inspiration and ideas:

Decatur, GA removed parking minimums for commercial buildings, and increased bike access in the process.

Decatur, GA, located just over six miles from Atlanta, adopted a Unified Development Ordinance in 2015. A downtown that was once dominated by parking now has legislative backing that seeks to encourage the opening of revenue-producing businesses and new development projects rather than unproductive uses like an abundance of surface parking lots. Image Credit: Occupymyfamily.com

Phoenixville, PA removes parking minimums minimums in its downtown through a new comprehensive plan, facing a surprising lack of resistance from the community, and seeing fantastic results.

The new ordinance removed parking minimums and instead implemented maximums for most commercial uses. The ordinance also lowered requirements for buildings with other uses. For instance, residential buildings now have a requirement of just one space per unit, as opposed to previous requirements of multiple spaces. Image Credit: APA