California treats parking like a birthright. But that obsession with ensuring motorists can always find a parking spot sabotages more important goals, including building more housing and reducing driving.
If state leaders are serious about making California affordable, livable and sustainable, they’ve got to stop local laws that prioritize parking over people. One way to do that is eliminating parking requirements in new developments near transit, and there are two bills pending in the Legislature that would do just that.
Most cities require new residential and commercial developments to be built with lots of on-site parking, no matter if the spots are needed or desired. Typically, cities mandate one to two parking spaces per unit in a residential development. It can cost $55,000 per parking spot in a midsize apartment project in Los Angeles, according to one analysis. That drives up the cost of construction and makes it difficult for smaller or less pricey projects to pencil out. The expense of building parking is passed along to tenants and buyers, whether they want the spots or not.
