Maryland Parking Lots Go Underground
As the affluent area grows more urban, Montgomery County looks forward to a decline in asphalt and concrete. "Many big public lots near shopping districts or public transportation hubs also happen to be on some of the most prime real estate in the county. Developers would rather turn them into something like The Flats at Bethesda, which will have restaurants, stores and upscale condos."
Some longtime parkers experienced separation anxiety. "When we closed the parking ... I didn't realize how many people had a personal reserved parking space in a public lot. So many came up and said 'You took my parking away. You took my space away.' But the end result is what was 300 surface parking spaces is now 960 underground parking spaces and what we hope people will appreciate as beautiful stuff above."
"Surface parking lots are becoming increasingly obsolete, says County Executive Isiah Leggett." Between less surface parking, more bikes, and declining VMT, Montgomery seems set to eventually wean itself off car dependence.
Topics
- Report: No City or State in the U.S. Has Enough Housing for Low-Income Residents
- Scooter Media Brief: Safety, Security, and Business Models Raise Concerns
- The New New Protected Bike Lane
- Review: The Hudson Yards Mega-Development, Open to the Public Today
- Proposed Mega-Development Would Expand Chicago's Skyline
- 3D Printing Affordable Housing at Scale
- Editorial: Raise Height Limits to San Jose's Proper Stature
- It Takes a Fatality to Remove On-Street Parking
- Five Years of 100 Resilient Cities
- Where Gas Taxes Only Serve the Needs of More Sprawl
- 'Urban Luxury' Housing Skyrockets in Texas and Beyond
- The Battle for Public Space: Business Owners vs. Homeless Residents
- Google Doodle Commemorates Those Bumps on the Edge of the Transit Platform
- Express Bus Service Coming to the Suburbs South of Seattle
- On-Street Parking a Sticking Point for Cincinnati's Road Diet Plan
- Bus Transit Used to Be Profitable on the Las Vegas Strip
- Study: Density Can Impede Growth
- Climate Resilience Plan Would Extend Manhattan
- Deadly Flooding Follows Bomb Cyclone in the Midwest
- Many Norms, Few Plans: Urban Rubble Clearance in the Cities of the Global South
