Phoenix Could Ease Parking Requirements to Support Transit, Affordable Housing

Phoenix planners are preparing a new law that would ease parking requirements for residential development around the city as well as transit oriented development near the city’s light rail system, with the Phoenix City Council expected to make a decision on the proposed zoning changes in September.

The proposed changes to the city’s parking requirements “would lower that bottom floor [set by minimum parking requirements] across the city but lower it even further for affordable housing complexes and developments in the Gateway, Eastlake-Garfield, Midtown, Uptown and Solano neighborhoods, which surround light rail,” according to a pawywalled article by Taylor Seely for the Arizona Republic.

“Under the new law, a 100-unit apartment complex in one of those five communities near light rail could see the requirement lower from 113 required spaces to 50 spaces. If it's an affordable complex in one of those communities, the parking quota would, in most cases, fall to zero,” adds Seely. “A 100-unit complex elsewhere in the city would go from 150 spaces to 125 spaces. If it's an affordable complex but not near light rail, it would go from 150 required spaces to 63.”

The source article notes that parking reform is increasingly popular in U.S. cities, listing Minneapolis, Portland, and Austin as examples.

The article lays out the arguments of supporters and opponents of the new law. Seely says residents “by and large” oppose the change, but implies that opponents might not be able to sway members of the Phoenix City Council from supporting the new law.