San Jose Becomes Largest US City to Drop Minimum Parking Rules

In the surest sign yet that “walkable” transit-oriented developments are the shape of things to come, San Jose has become the largest US city to abolish minimum parking space requirements at new housing developments.

In a paradigm shift that reverses decades of urban planning—dating back to the 1950s—in California that was built around the automobile as the primary mode of transportation, San Jose has taken the first step to reverse policies that have given the city a reputation as having the worst sprawl of parking space in NoCal.

The City Council voted unanimously to ditch the minimum parking requirements, citing zoning requirements for minimum parking as an obstacle preventing the expansion of housing and the reduction of carbon emissions, according to a report in the San Jose Mercury News.

Under the standard that the council abolished, a new single-family home required two covered parking spots and restaurants were required to provide one spot for every 40 SF or 2.5 dining room seats, whichever were greater.

In its first significant shift in parking rules since 1965 in the South Bay area city, the council also tilted the dynamic in favor of other modes of transportation—enacting new bicycle parking mandates, including requiring one bike for every two lanes at bowling alleys and at least one bicycle spot for every 800 SF at restaurants.

(And no, the new rules don’t explain how you carry a bowling ball around on a bicycle.)

According to the newspaper, the parking minimums have been a major factor driving up housing costs by reducing the number of housing units that can be built on a site while adding up to $75,000 in cost for each parking space or garage created, costs that go up for underground parking.

The new rules do not prevent developers from building parking lots in San Jose, a city with a population now over 1M, but allows them to “rightsize” parking for new developments as they see fit. It also does not remove any current parking, the newspaper reported.

San Francisco also has eliminated its parking minimums, and more limited reductions to minimums have been enacted in Los Angeles, San Diego, Berkeley and Oakland have been enacted.

In September, Gov. Gavin Newson signed into new law abolishing parking minimums statewide for developments within a half a mile of major public transit stops.

Michael Lane, a housing policy specialist with San Francisco think tank SPUR, called the elimination of the parking minimum in San Jose an “evolutionary” moment, according to the Mercury News report.

“It’s trying to make a more human scale and safer city,” Lanes said.