Getting parking right tools for creating demand based parking requirements

1. Laura Wiener
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF PLANNING
TOWN OF ARLINGTON

2. Dana Angelo
DIRECTOR
EA FISH DEVELOPMENT LLC

3. Metro-Boston Smart
Parking Initiative
PHASE 1: TOOLS FOR CREATING
DEMAND-BASED PARKING
REQUIREMENTS
Kasia Hart
Transportation Policy
Associate
Kate Ito
Public Health
Planner

4. Metropolitan Area Planning Council
•Regional Planning
Agency for 101 cities
and towns in Greater
Boston
•Promote smart
growth and regional
collaboration

5. Smart Parking
Aligning Parking Supply and Demand
•Goal: understand the
existing relationship
between parking supply
and demand at
multifamily developments

7. Data Collection
Surveyed 126 multifamily
properties
Conducted overnight parking
counts at 80 multifamily properties

9. 4,511 Parking
Spaces Counted
Serving 3,913
housing units

10. 0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
ParkingUtilizationRate
Parking Utilization Rate by Surveyed Property (N=80)
How full were the parking lots?

11. 0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
ParkingUtilizationRate
Parking Utilization Rate by Surveyed Property (N=80)
How full were the parking lots?

12. 0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
ParkingUtilizationRate
Parking Utilization Rate by Surveyed Property (N=80)
How full were the parking lots?

13. On average, parking lots were 74% full

14. 0.2 to 2.2 parking spaces supplied
per unit
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
ParkingSupplyRatio
Parking Supply per Unit by Surveyed Property (N=80)

16. Phase 1 Model
BUILDING CHARACTERISTICS
o Parking supply per unit
o % of affordable units
o Tenure
o Average number of
bedrooms/unit
o Average Rent
o Parking cost included
o Building square footage
o Floor Area Ratio
o % building coverage of lot
NEIGHBORHOOD CHARACTERISTICS
o Job accessibility
o WalkScore
o Block size
o Median rent
o AllTransit score
o Transit Connectivity Index
o Transit as percentage of
income
o Housing tenure

17. What drives parking?
•Parking supply per unit
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
1.4
1.6
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
ParkingDemandperUnit
Parking Supply per Unit

19. Phase 1 Summary of Findings
1. Parking was
oversupplied
2. Supply drives demand

20. Next Steps
• Collect more data
• Work with cities and towns on policy change

21. What You Can Do
•Zoning changes
◦ Reduce or eliminate parking minimums
◦ Implement parking maximums
◦ Modify parking requirements based on use (affordable housing, senior housing)
and/or access to transit
◦ Allow parking to be shared between residents and customers if in a mixed-use
building

22. What You Can Do
•Additional changes
◦ Unbundle cost of parking from rent or purchase price
◦ Allow developers to pay a fee-in-lieu of parking if developers are interested in
constructing fewer spaces than required
◦ Encourage the use of carsharing services, such as Zipcar, through carsharing credits
Don’t let past thinking dictate future planning

23. Thank you!
Kasia Hart, MAPC
Transportation Policy Associate
khart@mapc.org | 617-933-0745
Kate Ito, MAPC
Public Health Planner
kito@mapc.org | 617-933-0729
Supported
by: