These Cities Recently Passed Parking Reforms (and Yours Can Too)
Austin, Texas, is the largest American city to abolish parking mandates so far. (Original image: Randy von Liski on Flickr.)
Advocates and planning professionals who work on parking reform have noticed a seismic shift in the past decade. A subject that was once so esoteric it had to be explained before the case for reform could be made is now considered part of the toolkit for cities seeking to improve land use and enable much-needed housing construction.
2023 was a banner year for parking reform. Several big cities, including the largest American city yet to abolish parking mandates (Austin, Texas), took action, as did communities with populations as low as 1,000 (Gold Hill, Oregon).
This is often how change happens — very slowly and then all at once. So, when you decide to pursue parking reform in your community, you’ll have the benefit of success stories from places that have already acted and the benefit of knowing the arguments that helped influence lawmakers in those places.
We’ve assembled a guide to three towns and cities of varying sizes that have recently revised their parking regulations. (You can keep track of efforts across North America with the Parking Reform Network’s Reform Map.)
Austin, Texas (Population: 974,000)
Texas’ capital is booming by every measure, with a population approaching one million within city limits. This has led to an extreme housing crunch and affordability crisis, which in turn led people to start asking why car-centric rules from the 20th century should dictate what can be built where.
What the legislation does: Removes the requirements that developers of commercial and residential projects provide off-street parking for new construction. A certain number of ADA-accessible parking spaces will still be required.
Text of the legislation: AN ORDINANCE AMENDING CITY CODE TITLE 25 TO ELIMINATE 4 MINIMUM MOTOR VEHICLE PARKING SPACE REQUIREMENTS
It [parking] gobbles up scarce land. It adds burdensome costs to developments that get passed on to renters and buyers. It makes it harder for small businesses to get off the ground. And it harms walkability and actively works against our public investments in transit, bike lanes, trails and sidewalks.
— Austin City Council Member Zohaib Qadri
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (Population: 300,000)
(Original image: Bruce Guenter on Flickr.)
Housing scarcity was also the issue that drove Saskatoon's city council to unanimously approve parking reform in late July 2024. The city saw its largest year-over-year population increase between 2022 and 2023, and it urgently needs to enable new housing construction to accommodate new residents.
What the legislation does: Eliminates off-street parking requirements for all new developments citywide. This move will enable Saskatoon to qualify for funding from Canada’s federal Housing Accelerator Fund.
Text of legislation: ZONING BYLAW NO. 8770 OF THE CITY OF SASKATOON
Parking should be a function of the market, not a function of building code bylaws or zoning regulations … [parking requirements] cost the city enormously in terms of regulatory process, reviewing plans, staff capacity and time.
— Strong Towns YXE member Karen Kobussen, in a testimony to the Saskatoon City Council
Port Townsend, Washington (Population: 10,400)
(Original image: David Seibold on Flickr.)
Parking minimums have the same adverse effects on small towns as big cities: They drive up construction costs, which contributes to housing unaffordability. Port Townsend, a historic town on Puget Sound, needs a range of new housing types. It seeks to spur development by removing the requirements that developers provide off-street parking in new builds.
What the legislation does: Creates an interim rule change to make previous off-street parking mandates into recommendations instead of requirements. The removal of parking mandates will be made permanent in an upcoming comprehensive plan update.
Text of legislation: AN INTERIM ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF PORT TOWNSEND AMENDING PORT TOWNSEND MUNICIPAL CODE CHAPTER 17.72 RELATING TO INTERIM PARKING REGULATIONS
Read more: "Port Townsend Just Quietly Ditched Its Off-Street Parking Mandates" by Ryan Packer for The Urbanist
There’s tons of housing that was built, you know, pre-1970s, [19]80s, that doesn’t have any on-site parking here in Port Townsend. And so we’re trying to true up to lived experience historically with what we’re allowing people to do now.
— Port Townsend Mayor David Faber, as told to The Urbanist
Ben Abramson is a Staff Writer at Strong Towns. In his career as a travel journalist with The Washington Post and USA TODAY, Ben has visited many destinations that show how Americans were once world-class at building appealing, prosperous places at a human scale. He has also seen the worst of the suburban development pattern, and joined Strong Towns because of its unique way of framing the problems we can all see and intuit, and focusing on local, achievable solutions. A native of Washington, DC, Ben lives in Venice, Florida; summers in Atlantic Canada; and loves hiking, biking, kayaking, and beachcombing.