Transportation and housing advocates are calling for Boulder to eliminate old rules about off-street parking. Opponents to the regulations say they change the streetscape in the area and make housing even more expensive.
Jon Herrick has been following this story for the Boulder Reporting Lab and he joined KUNC’s Nikole Robinson Carroll to go over the details.
“In the city of Boulder, much like cities across the US, if you're going to build a home or commercial space for a business, you probably have to provide a certain amount of off street parking across pretty much all the city,” Herrick said. “For every housing unit you build, you have to provide one spot for off-street car storage in commercial areas. For every 300 to 400 square feet of floor area, you need to provide one off-street parking spot.”
Transportation and housing advocates argue the city has an excess of parking that pollutes water runoff and causes an urban heat island effect.
“They also say that parking in general creates an incentive to own a car, and therefore contributes to greenhouse gas emissions and the tailpipe emissions that cause ground level ozone. Not to mention that just more cars on the road increases the odds of a car crash,” Herrick said.
Critics of the regulations also say parking requirements drive up demand for land resources, increasing the overall cost of building homes.
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Boulder officials could vote to repeal the parking requirements, which have been in place for decades. Meanwhile, a proposed city transportation program might help address related issues.
“This could include things like subsidizing bus passes, carshare programs, e-scooters, e-bikes, etc.,” Herrick told KUNC. “We're talking about this at the city level here at city council, but we might also see something similar at the state level. The big statewide land use bill that got a lot of attention last year - that also included reforms related to parking so we could see these types of changes statewide.”
