City of San Diego sets the stage for innovative parking policies

By Elyse Lowe, executive director, MOVE Alliance San Diego

Free parking really isn’t free.

On average, a parking space costs $40,000 for the land, development and maintenance through a 30-year period. It doesn’t make sense to waste this much money on the finite space in San Diego’s congested corridors where residents don’t need as much parking.

That’s why the unanimous vote from the San Diego City Council on October 16 has set a precedent for our region that MOVE Alliance hopes to see echoed in other San Diego County jurisdictions. The Council approved an ordinance that will allow affordable housing developers to maximize limited space with more homes and apartments in walkable, transit-priority areas. Because the California legislature failed to pass a similar measure, AB 904 (Skinner), which would have reformed in-fill parking regulations statewide, the Council’s decision puts San Diego in a leadership role of smart growth in the state.

The MOVE Alliance, comprising expert volunteers who evaluate and endorse early stage development projects in the San Diego region for their commitment to transit-oriented development and smart growth principles, publicly supported the ordinance at the hearing. We believe the new standards will reform the old “one-size-fits-all” approach, allowing flexibility to create livable communities. It is reform that is sensitive to a community’s characteristics of walkability and transit access.

The ordinance provides empirically based parking rates for four different types of affordable housing: family, single-room occupancy, senior housing, and studio and one bedroom. This model accounts for resident, visitor, and staff parking, as well as a parking vacancy factor to account for special circumstances when demand is higher.

In addition to studying best practices from similar cities and input from focus groups, the affordable housing parking regulations amendment stems from a study that the City of San Diego completed in 2010. According to the study report, data from the sample of 34 local affordable housing sites show that:

• Parking demand for affordable units is roughly half of typical San Diego rental units
• Demand varies with the type of affordable housing (family housing vs. single room occupancy)
• Parking demand rises with the size of dwelling unit and higher income levels
• Demand for parking is less in areas with frequent transit and walkable destinations
• All of the studied developments supplied more peak overnight parking than spaces used

This ordinance allows affordable housing developments to maximize the number of homes near transit and other walkable amenities available by lowering the number of unused parking spots. It also allows for shared parking where existing units have surplus spaces. It eliminates wasted space and inefficient uses of valuable land, and creates new opportunity for increasing much-needed housing units in the city.

This ordinance is just the beginning.

We now have momentum and opportunity to continue this innovative leadership. For example, some small cities in the Bay Area have incorporated GreenTRIP, a certification program that rewards multi-family, mixed-use, in-fill projects that apply comprehensive strategies to reduce traffic and greenhouse gas emissions. Some projects there come with long-term transit passes in lieu of parking spaces.

All eyes are now on SANDAG laying the framework for the first update to the 2050 Regional Transportation Plan and Sustainable Communities Strategy. It’s time to move from short-term satisfaction to long-term parking strategies that shift the paradigm from artificial incentives that encourage driving to new solutions that sustainably accommodate growth with mobility options. As SANDAG targets region-wide parking policies in the next year, we hope the SANDAG board members can learn from this example – now set by the City of San Diego – by creating thoughtful parking strategies that empower cities to implement tailored requirements to meet the needs of the specific community.

Our highest-use and most transit-oriented corridors can benefit from smart-growth strategies that maximize space with more affordable housing units, make it more accessible for affordable housing residents to take transit and thus reduce traffic congestion for all commuters.

MOVE Alliance supports projects and policies that create Mobility Options Viable for Everyone. Information about the projects endorsed by the MOVE Alliance is available at movesd.org/smartgrowth.html