Parking minimums are a staple in American land use legislation, with nearly all cities requiring parking minimums across zones.[1] Residential minimums “usually” require at least two parking spaces per dwelling unit.[2]Commercial minimums are often calculated around peak need, meaning that parking lots are “likely to be full only [around Black Friday and before Christmas], the busiest shopping days of the year.”[3] These mandated minimums require cities to dedicate significant surface area to parking lots: in the city of Denver, 17% of city land is used for parking.[4] This is significantly more than cities known to have robust public transit, with a mere 4% of city land dedicated to parking in Washington, DC and 6% in Boston, MA, but it is less than other cities like Las Vegas, NV and Kansas City, MO at 33% and 29% respectively.[5]
Professor Donald Shoup of UCLA popularized criticism of parking minimums in his 2016 book, The High Cost of Free Parking.[6] Professor Shoup likened parking minimums to the use of lead therapy in the eighteenth century: just as lead therapy was used by doctors to solve medical problems at the inadvertent expense of the patient overall, parking minimums were implemented to solve the need for parking at the inadvertent expense of cities.[7] Organizations like the Parking Reform Network have continued to advocate for the reduction of parking minimums for the sake of cities.[8]
Colorado legislators such as Rep. Stephanie Vigil voiced such criticisms in Colorado: “[Free parking] is being paid for somehow,” particularly at the expense of the ability to build affordable housing.[9] Legislators including Rep. Vigil challenged Colorado parking minimums through HB24-1304, a portion of a 2023 session bill that was passed as a distinct law in the 2024 legislative session.[10]
What The Law Says
The law prohibits municipalities from “enact[ing] or enforce[ing] . . . a minimum parking requirement that applies to a land use approval [in residential and mixed-use zones].”[11] The law carves out exceptions for accessibility requirements and developments with more than 20 new units.[12] The law only affects municipalities within “metropolitan planning organizations” (MPOs), which are larger metropolitan hubs throughout the state such as Denver, Boulder, Colorado Springs, and Fort Collins.[13] Although the law cites a variety of reasons for prohibiting parking minimums in these particular areas, the law notably links car-oriented transportation with higher costs of living and reduced public transit use.[14] Thus, the law targets communities most likely to be benefitted by reduced cost of living and greater transit access.
Parking Minimums and Housing Affordability
The high cost of housing is a major concern for Coloradans, because Colorado is the “8th least affordable state for housing.”[15] Over one-third of Coloradans are cost-burdened, meaning they spend over 30% of their income on housing.[16]
Studies indicate that new housing development increases the housing supply and lowers housing costs, which would reduce costs in Colorado’s expensive market.[17]Colorado has a shortage of approximately 325,000 dwelling units.[18]
Yet, parking minimums discourage development: each parking space costs developers an additional $10,000 to $25,000 and takes up space that could otherwise be used for residential units.[19]
Regulatory burdens like parking minimums grant developers less flexibility in what they build and force supply costs up. However, the deregulation of parking minimums presents one way to combat high housing costs: “If developers know they will not face intense regulatory barriers, they will be much more likely to maintain affordable units.”[20]
Parking Minimums and Types of Transportation
Parking minimums result in low density land use, which in turn reaffirms the use of cars as the primary method of transportation in the United States. Higher parking requirements are associated with less frequent use of public transportation.[21] Coloradans, living at greater distances from their workplaces and schools, are forced to rely on cars to cross the distance. This creates a self-reinforcing transportation system, in which communities use whatever transit they can access.
Cars are a costly form of transportation, running costs of more than $12,000 annually on average.[22] For Coloradans already burdened by high housing costs, the reliance on cars only adds to the financial strain.
Removing Parking Minimums Isn’t Enough
A primary criticism of the law is that a reduction in parking minimums will “make it harder for working class people to drive to work.”[23] In the core of these criticisms lies an important truth about the current transportation infrastructure of Colorado: our transportation infrastructure is oriented around cars.
These critics are right about our car dependency, but the answer is not to continue to embrace parking minimums. The answer is to provide alternative public transportation infrastructure in lieu of a car-centric system.
The Colorado state government has some legislation in progress towards this goal. In 2024, Colorado also passed HB24-1313, the Housing in Transit Oriented Communities law, which requires higher density near public transit and allots millions in grants to expand transit infrastructure.[24]
Overall, this new law on parking minimums is an important first step towards promoting sustainable transportation in the state of Colorado. However, whether this law will be successful in reaching this end depends on the legislature’s ability to create comprehensive legislation in addressing the state’s transportation needs across transportation methods and between regions.
[20] Megan VanGilder, The Good, The Bad, and the Gentrified: How the Historical Misuse and Future Potential of Zoning Laws Impact Urban Development, 92 Univ. Cin. L. Rev. 1258, 1282 (2024).
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