Montana Bill Promotes Parking Reform

A proposed Montana state bill would limit how much parking cities can require for new residential developments, reports Eric Dietrich in the Montana Free Press, only allowing cities to mandate one parking space per housing unit. “It would also ban parking requirements entirely for existing buildings undergoing renovations, licensed child care facilities and projects with housing units smaller than 1,200 square feet.”

The measure, which passed the state House and is headed to the Senate, is designed to reduce the cost of housing construction and housing costs. “Limiting urban parking requirements was named last year as a possible housing affordability strategy by Gov. Greg Gianforte’s housing task force, which wrote at the time that surface parking stalls typically add $5,000 apiece to development costs.”

Critics of the bill say Montana cities don’t have the public transit networks that make parking reform possible in other places. “Emma Bode, a Bozeman city commissioner, also argued the bill would undermine an existing Bozeman program that relaxes the city parking requirements for developers who commit to offering below-market-rate rents.”