I wish I could post a pic without having to type 20 chars.
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Kudos to Eric Braun and his @moderatepolitik truth…
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Ahem, that public survey is at Parking Minimums, Maximums, and Mitigations (TC-11-21) - PublicInput.com. Let’s fill this one out, people. 
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This is always such a funny and interesting argument to me. The amount of moral flexing directed towards developers and how they should build their risky multi-million dollar developments is hilarious. How many people have made the commitment to live downtown, reduce their family vehicle count, voluntarily ride public transportation or bike? Very few. But maybe if we forced this office development to only provide vehicle parking for 1/3 of its employees, magically our public transit will be sufficient and people will begin moving downtown? Right. If people aren’t willing to lead by example and make these changes themselves, you think strong arming a developer is the solution?
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I don’t think the US will ever go away from having cars. But I do think we’re only 10-15 years away from having full self driving cars that are available to rent on a daily or monthly basis. I think it will become pretty normal for a lot of people to not own a car and instead be a subscriber to a self driving car ride share service that picks you up and drives you to your location. In theory those cars can be parked offsite on a cheap piece of land outside of downtowns. Then when summoned can pick their customer up.
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Boston introduces ‘maximum parking ratios’ for large buildings
“The City of Boston recently announced new planning guidelines for large developments that will limit the amount of parking that developers will be allowed to build, with stricter limits applying in the city’s most transit-accessible neighborhoods.”…
These Maximum Parking Ratios are a critical first step in the larger reform effort.
The Maximum Parking Ratios do accomplish reforms for minimum parking requirements, however. “Throughout the entire city, the new guidelines also specify that zero parking would be allowed for new developments, in conjunction with required ‘transportation demand management’ plans to provide more car-free transportation options,” adds MilNeil.
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Want to get a feel for peoples thoughts on lower amounts of parking. Only one response per person to see what the TOP motivations are.
Less Parking Is Most Important Because
- Reduces Pollution From Driving
- Reduces Traffic
- Creates a Safer Area for Ped & Bikes
- Better Aesthetic for Buildings
- Help Incentivize Public Transit
- Helps More People Live Downtown
- Reduces the Cost of Building
- Less Parking Just Makes an Area Worse
0 voters
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The actual parking maximums spelled out don’t seem like they would have much teeth.
Block 83 Phase 3 seems to have about 300k square feet of actual commercial floor space (the tower, including parking, is 450k, and the whole thing including the standalone deck is 615k.)
With the max of 1 space per 200sf, and 816 planned spaces, they’re still only building a bit more than half of what the proposed max would be (around 1500 spaces)
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Excellent poll. I think you have pretty much covered all the bases here.
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I do love seeing mandatory short and long-term bike parking, though. That’s a game-changer.
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Finally diving into the doc myself, you are right that it doesn’t seem like much may change as the “boundaries” are still quite generous. This does feel like a natural next step, not a big step, but a small one to flip the narrative from minimums to maximums.
For just a few uses, there is a max but generally, we need to start saying, “downtown has no max on parking” rather than saying “there are no minimums anymore”. Both are true, technically, but if the mindset starts to change in terms of maxs, then I see a future council start to change “No maximum” to “XYZ maximum”. That’ll be the nudge that starts to move people towards alternative transit.
The intro is pretty clear here that in the future, this may be revised as transit starts to ramp up. At least that’s what I’ll be expecting anyway.
WHEREAS, the Unified Development Ordinance specifies minimum vehicle parking
requirements for certain uses; and
WHEREAS, minimum vehicle parking requirements act as a subsidy for driving, which leads
to more miles driven, increased carbon emissions, and worsened community health; and
WHEREAS, minimum vehicle parking requirements increase the cost of housing and the cost
of goods and services,
WHEREAS, minimum vehicle parking requirements create an inequitable burden to residents
who cannot afford or choose to do without cars,
WHEREAS, minimum vehicle parking requirements can lead to the creation of unnecessary
parking spaces, adding impervious surfaces and creating other unintended consequences;
WHEREAS, large amounts of vehicle parking undermine walkability, degrade the urban
landscape, create “heat island” effects, contribute to climate change, and
WHEREAS, concerns about “spillover” parking can be addressed by residential parking
permit districts and other targeted strategies;
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With an increasing amount of housing downtown, we need more of our alternate transportation to be our feet, and the parking spaces for our butts to be chairs.
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Boston City Council Approves Maximum Parking Ratios
"A pair of recently published articles updated one of the big planning reform stories of October, after the Boston City Council approved new Maximum Parking Ratios as part of new planning guidelines for large developments.
“The changes would complement recent rule changes to the city’s “Article 80” permitting process that will limit the amount of parking that developers would be allowed to build in large developments (over 50,000 square feet),” according to MilNeil.
For additional background on the proposed zoning changes, see a Planetizen article from October.
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City Council will consider removing parking requirements city-wide at its meeting on Tuesday:
The change would also add some additional bicycle parking requirements and vehicle parking maximums, and was approved 9-0 by the Planning Commission.
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We need to get rid of parking downtown all together.
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With that said, let’s just ban cars entirely in the downtown business district. 
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No that kill the downtown urban vibe. But parking should be heavily restricted Downtown. It’s a good time to take advantage of this, with gas prices going up.
Until we have robust, viable transit solutions, and until there is a substantial number of people living and working downtown to support a self sustaining ecosystem of stores, restaurants, and services, a significant reduction of cars and parking is a fantasy.
Until such a time, I think that our strategy should be to consolidate parking locations on main arterial accesses into the city center. I’d like to see the actual secondary road network downtown become more hostile to driving so that folks park their cars when they come downtown rather than cruise the city like this is Benson in the 1980s or something. Prioritize the pedestrian and bicycle experiences, and eliminate parallel parking everywhere we can.
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Exactly. People will stop driving when it’s faster and/or more convenient to get where they need to go without driving.
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Well it seems like commuter rail and BRT aren’t here yet until 2027. So we still have a few years. But Parallel Parking we should get rid of.
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