Washington State’s Parking Reform Law Could Unlock ‘Countless’ Acres for New Housing

Washington State’s recent parking reform law could have a major impact on the state’s housing crisis, writes Kea Wilson in Streetsblog USA.

Parking requirements are frequently blamed for driving up the cost of housing construction and limiting the potential for density. The new law bars cities from requiring more than one parking spot per two residential units or one spot per detached single-family home. “Some building types are even held exempt from all parking requirements, including affordable and senior housing complexes where fewer residents drive, daycare centers that struggle to make ends meet even without an ocean of asphalt to build and maintain, and any residence under 1,200 square feet — a category which includes most apartments in dense areas like Seattle.”

The new law will also help the state streamline building codes that create arbitrary parking minimums for various businesses and other types of buildings. “Proponents of the bill say those subtle moves could have a seismic impact on Washington's housing and commercial landscape, allowing builders to unlock countless acres of previously undevelopable land that legally had to be devoted to asphalt — even if the structures those spaces serve were initially built in the days when parking minimums were lower.”

Parking reform could offer both short-term relief for renters and a long-term shift toward less auto-centric communities. According to Catie Gould, a researcher for Sightline, “[Parking reform] allows the market to build what they think is common sense, instead of having these predetermined rules that were set by the government who knows how many decades ago.”