The excellent folks at Sightline have looked at recent multifamily construction in Seattle and analyzed the parking use and financing. The conclusion – zoning regulations and bank demands result in more parking being built than needed, and the parking loses money. That means folks are making up the difference in what they pay for housing, including the folks with no cars.
3 responses to “Who Really Pays for Parking?”
Sort of related to this, what do people think of the current Area Parking Permit Program as a way of managing the interface between purely residential blocks and mixed use corridors? Imagine a group of single family home blocks adopting the program as a way of limiting the impact of nearby multi-family housing and retail with limited parking. Is this good or bad, desirable or undesirable, or none of the above?
The APP may be useful to manage commercial/residential conflicts (that’s the hope on NW 23rd). But it doesn’t help if there is more residential demand than can be accommodated on the street. We’re going to need a different tool for that.
What if it were a district drawn to encompass only low-density blocks, specifically excluding blocks with higher density?