D.C. Weighs Requiring More Residential Parking

Resident complaints about parking shortages have convinced the county planning commission to hold a public hearing to decide whether a new ordinance requiring more residential parking is the best solution. Meanwhile, other county officials are hoping to reduce new development parking requirements in an effort to encourage the use of public transit.

"In the proposal up for approval, which will go before the Board of Supervisors next month, county staff members recommend increasing the parking required for new townhouse communities from 2.3 spaces for each unit to 2.7. For single-family homes, they recommend increasing the current two spaces a unit to three where streets are too narrow for on-street parking."

"The changing nature of townhouse developments is driving the problem, said Jim Ketchum, chairman of the land use committee of the Western Fairfax Council of Citizens Association. Once viewed more as starter homes, townhouses are now often as large as detached homes were a generation ago and are often occupied by families with children of driving age. Urging public transit in these communities doesn't take into account distances from bus and rail routes, he said."