San Francisco is about to mandate carsharing parking in new downtown residential buildings (C3 zoning district). It would be mandated at 1 carsharing space for every 200 dwelling units under a proposal passed by the Board of Supervisors last week, but not yet signed by the Mayor. Bicycle parking would also be mandated at 1 space per 2 or 4 units depending on the size of the project.
The heart of the proposal is to move from mandating minimum ratio of parking spaces to a maximums are 0.25 to 0.75 spaces per unit and for dwellings of 2 or more bedrooms and more than 1,000 square feet up to 1 space is allowed. Other requirements include unbundling the cost of parking from the sales price or monthly rent/lease cost, as well as changes to off-street parking requirements.
The advocacy group Transportation for a Liveable City, which has been promoting the idea, published a detailed report on "The Real Costs of San Francisco's Off-Street Parking Requirements". The group claims, "Despite the fact that nearly 30% of all San Francisco households and 40% of renters don't even own cars, and 50% of San Francisco commuters get to work every day without a car, for the past 50 years the City has required that at least one off-street parking space be provided for almost every new housing unit built throughout the City. Since every parking space adds $20,000 to $50,000 dollars to the cost of a housing unit, these parking requirements make housing for cars cheaper and housing for people more expensive!
Thanks to Adam Millard-Ball of Nelson/Nygaard for this tip. A link to a summary of the proposal can be found at the LINK below.
