Burlington Could Eliminate Parking Requirements Citywide

A proposed ordinance in Burlington, Vermont would eliminate that city’s minimum parking requirements in favor of a more market-oriented approach that would allow developers to build parking if and when the demand for it exists, reports Lilly St. Angelo for the Burlington Free Press. While some city councilmembers support the ordinance, saying it could boost housing construction and limit driving, others express the usual concerns about straining available street parking.

Along with removing parking minimums in certain parts of the city two years ago, Burlington also created parking maximums—an unusually bold move that some developers disagree with. As we recently covered in a prior story, some lenders impose their own parking requirements on developers seeking to secure a building loan, sometimes putting themselves at odds with cities and states working to reduce or eliminate parking requirements. 

“Besides taking away minimums, passing the ordinance would expand the city's Transportation Demand Management Program to the whole city instead of just the densest parts.” This program currently requires developers of projects with more than 10 units or 15,000 square feet in a downtown zoning district to follow a set of requirements that include “educating tenants on public transit and car share opportunities, providing free car-share memberships for two years and transit passes for one year to tenants, and doing an annual parking utilization study that is reported to the city. Developers also must unbundle the price of parking from rent.”