Fayetteville, Arkansas, home to the University of Arkansas and neighbor to Bentonville, home of Walmart, has taken a national leadership role in parking policy by ending minimum parking requirements for non-residential uses.
City Council members in Fayetteville, Arkansas, recently "approved a proposal to completely eliminate minimum parking requirements for nonresidential properties," reports Todd Gill. "The change means new businesses in commercial areas will no longer be required to provide a set number of parking spaces for their customers."
Gill lays out the way the old parking requirements worked, as well as some of the arguments made by city planners to explain the change. Among the arguments in support of dropping the city's commercial parking requirements: "Planning Commissioners last month criticized the laws for not considering the location of the business and for seemingly being set to satisfy peak demand instead of normal, everyday traffic," and, "[t]he old laws, planners said, made it difficult to start small businesses and discouraged people from walking or riding bikes."
The article includes ore detail about the legal and political debate that produced the final, approved version of the new parking requirements.
FULL STORY: Fayetteville eliminates minimum parking requirements

Maui's Vacation Rental Debate Turns Ugly
Verbal attacks, misinformation campaigns and fistfights plague a high-stakes debate to convert thousands of vacation rentals into long-term housing.

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

San Francisco Suspends Traffic Calming Amidst Record Deaths
Citing “a challenging fiscal landscape,” the city will cease the program on the heels of 42 traffic deaths, including 24 pedestrians.

Adaptive Reuse Will Create Housing in a Suburban Texas Strip Mall
A developer is reimagining a strip mall property as a mixed-use complex with housing and retail.

Study: Anti-Homelessness Laws Don’t Work
Research shows that punitive measures that criminalized unhoused people don’t help reduce homelessness.

In U.S., Urban Gondolas Face Uphill Battle
Cities in Latin America and Europe have embraced aerial transitways — AKA gondolas — as sustainable, convenient urban transport, especially in tricky geographies. American cities have yet to catch up.
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.
Heyer Gruel & Associates PA
JM Goldson LLC
Custer County Colorado
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Astoria
Transportation Research & Education Center (TREC) at Portland State University
Jefferson Parish Government
Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Claremont