Dallas Council Memo Suggests Ending Parking Requirements

A memo initially meant to support a PARK(ing) Day event in Dallas went further than expected when it “also called on Dallas City Manager T.C. Broadnax to reduce parking in the city, brief city officials on the status of that goal and look into the “elimination of minimum parking requirements in the city” — a major overhaul to the city’s decades old parking code.”

According to an article by Nathan Collins for KERA News, the memo, written by Council Member Chad West, was submitted in early August. Cities around the country are removing minimum parking requirements as part of their efforts to make housing more affordable and limit sprawl and the need for car use.

Collins notes that under the city’s current parking policy, developers are required to build an off-street parking spot for each bedroom in a residential unit, raising the cost of housing construction. “City staff also says the code poses a barrier to redevelopment of existing buildings, disproportionately burdens small business and could delay environmental and walkability goals the city has adopted.”

Some city councilmembers say their districts are ‘underparked,’ while others point to the many surface parking lots in the city that could be more efficiently used. Andreea Udrea, assistant director of the city’s planning and urban design department, said during a council briefing that the management of existing parking spaces is the city’s biggest problem. “The supply is not managed. Meaning, if it overspills, there’s no tools to deal with that, there’s no tools for design.”

Any proposed amendments to the zoning code will likely reach the City Council in late 2023 or early 2024.