A proposed amendment that could leave how much parking to create up to developers and possibly make parking harder to find, is moving forward to the next part of the approval process. That’s after the Dallas Zoning Ordinance Advisory Committee voted to approve city staff’s recommendations at Tuesday’s meeting.
With the option of how much parking to include in a new project left up to developers, critics say the proposal could increase the amount of cars being parked on the street — which could also decrease the number of free parking spots across the city.
The debate over reforming the city’s decades-old parking policy has been ongoing for years — and the amendment has been the subject of 27 committee briefings during that time.
“The impact of having so much waste in empty parking spaces, which is caused directly by the code we have, is that a lot of real estate sits idle and unproductive,” Zoning Ordinance Advisory Committee member Enrique MacGregor said during the meeting. “Billions of dollars worth of investment are tied up in parking that could be invested in productive opportunities.”
City staff’s proposed changes to the current code could ultimately eliminate minimum parking requirements in most parts of the city and remove “the requirement to offer off-street parking for free.”
Although most of the current code would still apply to Planned Development (PD) districts — specially zoned areas with their own development requirements — around the city, the proposed change would also allow the Dallas Board of Adjustment to weigh in on reducing parking in those zones.
But while advocates of the proposal say leaving the decision of how much parking to build up to developers may increase available development space, cut down on unused parking and help the city grow economically — the opposition isn’t convinced.
Critics say the policy could make it harder to find parking in already “under parked” areas of the city, possibly make it harder for individuals living with disabilities to maneuver the city — and argued that different parts of Dallas need different parking approaches.
And while developers and parking reformers say eliminating minimums will help create a more walkable Dallas — others argue the proposed change doesn’t reflect the city’s equity issues.
“I still have a major section of my district [where] a bus can’t even run down the street,” Zoning Ordinance Advisory Committee member Lori Blair said during the meeting. “The streets are unequitable in terms of being to accommodate and [Dallas Area Rapid Transit] is unequitable because there is nowhere except for one…line in over 50 square miles that is serviced in my district and it only goes Downtown.”
Blair says because there isn’t the necessary infrastructure in certain parts of the city — like southern Dallas — removing parking minimums all together leaves some communities unprotected.
“So when you’re talking about parking reforms and you’re saying you want to eliminate the minimums, you are talking about being inequitable,” Blair said during the meeting. “The city of Dallas does not apply equity as far as how it services the whole entire city. Period.”
Blair says she lives between two megachurches in the southern sector of the city and says if she is blocked in on Sunday’s because the facilities don’t have enough parking. That leads to churchgoers using residential on-street parking close to the church.
But staff’s recommendation — with one amendment — was approved 6 to 2 by the committee. The approval is a long time in the making for some.
“The biggest challenge of implementing parking reform has been the misconception that’s out there that I would summarize as people hear eliminating minimums and they think you’re eliminating parking,” MacGregor said. “That is actually not what it is at all.”
The debate isn’t over yet. With Tuesday’s approval, the proposed parking amendment will move on to the City Plan Commission — and the final decision will ultimately be up to the Dallas City Council.
Got a tip? Email Nathan Collins at ncollins@kera.org. You can follow Nathan on Twitter @nathannotforyou.
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