Retrofitting Parking Garages to Create New Housing

Could converting underused parking garages and lots be another key tool in solving the housing crisis? In a commentary in Route Fifty, Wes Guckert argues that the reduced need for parking in many cities offers an opportunity to simultaneously reactivate underutilized spaces and create much-needed housing.

Guckert points to examples in Los Angeles and San Diego, where city officials worked with architectural firms to retrofit parking garages with modular housing units for unhoused residents. According to Guckert, “The standard structure of most garages, combined with their near universal dimensions based on the unitized size of a parking space, allows for prefabricated housing pods such as those used in L.A. to be easily placed within the facility’s concrete shell.”

Former garages and surface lots are also being used for brand-new construction when retrofitting existing buildings would be too expensive or impractical. In these cases, cities can support such projects by smoothing the process for rezoning and reducing parking requirements for the new developments.

Guckert concludes, “As state and local governments continue to confront the problems of affordable housing and homelessness, and garage operators struggle to keep their heads above water, an opportunity clearly exists to address all of these issues at once.”