Minneapolis took a large leap forward last week by approving a plan that would reduce parking requirements for transit-adjacent developments in a huge swath of the city—not just downtown.
"Buildings with few or no parking spaces can now be built outside downtown Minneapolis as part of a proposal that passed the City Council Friday [July 10, 2015]," reports Eric Roper.
"The measure tackles the city's typical one-spot per-unit parking requirement for new developments by allowing significant reductions near high-frequency transit. The final version was scaled back to allow only a 50 percent reduction for larger buildings, rather than freeing them from the requirement altogether.
"But the final language allows buildings with 50 or fewer units to be built without parking outside of downtown -- where there are already no parking minimums -- if they are a quarter-mile away from transit with 15-minute frequencies."
The article goes on to detail case supporting the reduction of parking requirements. Conspicuously absent are soundbites from politicians or local advocates dissenting from the new ordinance. The article does, however, further detail the compromises that produced the final version of the law. The article also notes that despite new regulatory flexibility, many banks require parking to finance development projects.
Read the full story: Mpls. relaxes parking requirements to reduce housing costs
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