Title
Parking Ordinance Update: Opportunity To Provide Advice and Direction to Staff on Accessible Parking Requirements and the Potential Elimination of Off Street Parking Requirements for New Projects.
Body
To: Honorable Chair and Commissioners of the Commission on Persons with Disabilities
From: Brian McGuire, Planning Technician
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The purpose of the June 9, 2021 study session is to hear from the public and the Commission on Persons with Disabilities how to meet our Climate Change, affordable housing, and transportation goals without disproportionately impacting persons with disabilities that rely on accessible parking.
No final actions on specific zoning code amendments are being requested at this time.
BACKGROUND
Section 30.7 of the Alameda Municipal Code (AMC) regulates off street parking requirements for new projects in Alameda. Off street parking requirements are triggered for projects such as a new building, new dwelling unit, expansion of non-residential buildings, use permit, change in use, and certain residential additions. The amount of parking required can vary dramatically depending on the proposed use.
Minimum parking requirements have a significant impact on the cost of projects and play a large role in determining when and what gets built, and what type of commercial activity occurs in the City. Requiring abundant parking subsidizes car ownership and increases Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT). The extra space required for parking spreads out development and makes walking, biking, and transit less desirable and less viable. Parking crowds out other uses such as open space or employment. Pollution from tailpipe emissions, brake dust, and tire wear and tear all have significant public health impacts.
The San Francisco Bay Area roadway network is among the most congested in the nation and our own Estuary crossings are at or near capacity during pre-pandemic peak hours. Alameda has adopted a number of plans and policies aimed at reducing VMT and our reliance on private automobile trips. The Transportation Choices Plan (2018), which aims at addressing congestion at our estuary crossings and increasing the share of alternative modes of transportation for on-island trips, identifies changes to parking requirements as a high priority, near-term project. It states that abundant free parking encourages driving and calls for a review of parking requirements in the Zoning Code to encourage people to walk, bike, and use transit while lowering car ownership rates and development costs (p. 78, Project #8).
Seventy percent of Alameda’s greenhouse gas emissions come from the Transportation sector, primarily private automobiles. The 2019 Climate Action and Resiliency Plan (CARP) set aggressive targets for Alameda to reduce emissions. The CARP calls for eliminating minimum parking requirements in order to encourage mode shift and shorten lengthy permitting timelines (pp. 32-33). The draft General Plan update reinforces these other policy documents and also calls out the need to accommodate new housing required by the state while addressing the factors that lead to unaffordable housing. Alameda must plan for approximately 5,400 new housing units in the next eight year Housing Element cycle. There are many incentives for ensuring that new housing is accompanied by as few private automobiles as possible while encouraging existing residents who are able to shift more of their trips to sustainable modes.
DISCUSSION
Staff are developing Zoning Code amendments that would eliminate minimum off street parking requirements and establish maximum off street parking allowances. These changes would be similar to what has been in place for Alameda Point zoning districts since 2015. Staff understands that most new projects will still have strong financial incentive to provide a significant amount of off street parking. The development of Site A at Alameda Point and recent applications along the Northern Waterfront demonstrate this economic demand clearly. Some small infill projects in commercial districts or on high quality transit corridors may choose not to provide any parking, but that will likely be only a small portion of new development in Alameda.
Many people with disabilities rely on transit, paratransit, safe sidewalks and even utilize bike lanes to get to their destinations. While promoting shifts to environmentally sustainable modes is important, staff also understand that many people with limited mobility rely on personal automobiles and accessible parking spaces to access their destinations and that need will continue for the foreseeable future. Therefore, we are seeking the Commission’s input on ways to ensure that the elimination of minimum off street parking requirements does not result in an overall reduction in the availability of accessible parking spaces in Alameda. In addition to changes to off street parking, staff believes that modernizing how the City manages curb space in the public right of way is critical to effectively and efficiently meeting the needs to the community. While not the subject of this report, that effort is underway and will include increasing the number of parking enforcement employees, mobile payments, more loading zones, and blue curbed accessible parking spaces throughout the City.
The California Building Code (CBC) does not require parking, but generally states that where parking spaces are provided, accessible parking spaces “shall be provided in the manner prescribed.” This typically involves one (1) accessible space per twenty five (25) standard spaces up to one hundred (100), or four (4) percent. That ratio begins to drop for parking facilities with more than one hundred (100) spaces. Staff is considering language that would require increasing the percentage of accessible spaces required when parking is provided or front loading a certain number of accessible spaces in smaller parking lots. At the same time, staff is hoping to avoid having projects that would otherwise provide a modest amount of parking decide against any parking because the accessible parking requirements were too high. Similar to affordable housing construction, fifteen (15) percent of something is more than fifty (50) percent of nothing.
RECOMMENDATION
Staff recommends that the Commission on Persons with Disabilities provide advice and direction to staff on accessible parking requirements in the context of eliminating minimum off street parking requirements for new projects.
By,
Brian McGuire, Planning Technician