San Francisco may deregulate some parking
January 28th, 2008 by Jim JustSan Francisco is considering doing away with some laws that force development to accommodate cars and that require city dwellers to subsidize auto ownership.
Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin has introduced legislation that would eliminate required spaces for certain developments in the city’s denser neighborhoods and prohibit the cost of a parking space to be included in the cost of a condominium unit in large developments.
The ordinance would remove the minimum requirement of one parking space for every four units in housing projects for seniors and physically handicapped people, below-market-rate housing, group housing projects, residential-care facilities and single-room occupancy units.
The legislation would also force the “unbundling” of parking spaces in housing developments of 10 or more units, prohibiting the cost of a parking space from being included in the cost of the condo unit.
The legislation also encourages developers to employ more “space-efficient parking” by lifting the requirement of independently accessible parking, where each parking space has its own stall accessible by the driver of the car, to allow for such things as mechanical car parking or valet parking.
The proposed ordinance is a tentative step in a new direction. Can you imagine forging a new alliance among progressive land use and social justice activists; conservative property rights advocates and political libertarians; and the development community – retailers and commercial developers, industrialists, homebuilders and realtors – to further a program of removing restrictions that require expansion of our road systems and accommodation of the auto in residential, commercial, and industrial developments?