Smart Growth Parking Best Practices

The Maryland Governor's Office of Smart Growth has published an overview of parking strategies that meet the challenges faced by projects in the context of smart growth.

1 minute read

June 28, 2005, 7:00 AM PDT

By Chris Steins @planetizen


The Maryland Governor's Office of Smart Growth has published Driving Urban Environments: Smart Growth Parking Best Practices.

Recognizing the importance of parking in development, this report looks for new ways to manage parking supply and demand, to design parking facilities, and to provide financing, offering more, not fewer, options to communities, households and developers. These creative approaches are intended to promote better project design, reduce construction and operational costs, and add value to development projects.

The main sections of this study specifically address these three areas—parking management, parking design,and parking financing. The first section identifies parking management strategies that control the supplyand demand for parking. The following section proposes innovative design strategies that reduce theaesthetic and environmental impacts of parking facilities, including on-street parking, surface parking lots,and parking structures. The final section outlines various financing mechanisms and incentives for theconstruction of both public and private parking structures.

[Editor's note: The link below is to a 500KB PDF document.]

Thanks to Ashwani Vasishth

Monday, June 27, 2005 in Maryland Office Of Smart Growth

portrait of professional woman

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

Mary G., Urban Planner

Cover CM Credits, Earn Certificates, Push Your Career Forward

Logo for Planetizen Federal Action Tracker with black and white image of U.S. Capitol with water ripple overlay.

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker

A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

June 25, 2025 - Diana Ionescu

Map of Western U.S. indicating public lands that would be for sale under a Senate plan in yellow and green.

Map: Where Senate Republicans Want to Sell Your Public Lands

For public land advocates, the Senate Republicans’ proposal to sell millions of acres of public land in the West is “the biggest fight of their careers.”

June 19, 2025 - Outdoor Life

Person wearing mask walking through temporary outdoor dining setup lined with bistro lights at dusk in New York City.

Restaurant Patios Were a Pandemic Win — Why Were They so Hard to Keep?

Social distancing requirements and changes in travel patterns prompted cities to pilot new uses for street and sidewalk space. Then it got complicated.

June 19, 2025 - Diana Ionescu

Close-up of full beer glass with purple train-themed design sitting on bar between two frosty tall cans.

Platform Pilsner: Vancouver Transit Agency Releases... a Beer?

TransLink will receive a portion of every sale of the four-pack.

June 30 - Cities Today

Vintage red Toronto streetcar passing in front of Rogers Arena in Toronto, Canada.

Toronto Weighs Cheaper Transit, Parking Hikes for Major Events

Special event rates would take effect during large festivals, sports games and concerts to ‘discourage driving, manage congestion and free up space for transit.”

June 30 - blogTO

Map of Berlin with ring roads in green and red.

Berlin to Consider Car-Free Zone Larger Than Manhattan

The area bound by the 22-mile Ringbahn would still allow 12 uses of a private automobile per year per person, and several other exemptions.

June 30 - Streetsblog USA

Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools

This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.

Planning for Universal Design

Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.