The benefits of parking reform in a small university city

Minimum Parking Requirements (MPRs) have faced criticism for generating excess parking, degrading urban form, negatively impacting housing affordability, and encouraging automobile dependency. In response to the many problems caused by MPRs, over 200 American cities have reduced or removed parking minimums in some or all areas during the last decade or so. Empirical research that highlights the benefits of parking reforms can help further spread innovative parking solutions across the country. However, existing US-based research is limited to large city cases and to an analysis of changes in parking supply. This study investigates the broader benefits of parking reform in a small Midwestern city, Champaign, IL. In 2015-16, the city of Champaign selectively removed MPRs for its downtown and university districts that form its urban core. This targeted removal of MPRs offers an ideal quasi-experimental setup to examine the effects of such a policy change in a small city. I obtained the building permit dataset from 2009 to 2022 – seven years before and seven years after the reform – covering the entire city (n = 153) to analyze the impact. While our main analysis is quantitative, I also supplement our findings with interviews of four developers, one architect, and one planner. The construction of on-site parking in the deregulated zones dramatically decreased from 108% of the earlier requirement to only 46% after the reform, clearly indicating that MPRs had enforced an oversupply of parking in the student-dominated districts. In the seven-year period following the parking reform, 84% of the 43 new major developments, including eight with zero parking, built less parking than what would have been required without the reform. T-test and regression analysis results confirm that these changes in parking supply are statistically significant. Collectively, developers avoided constructing 2,142 parking spaces, saving approximately $43 to $49 million in construction costs. The reduced parking supply in new developments also led to more efficient utilization of existing parking stock, both public and private. Long-tern permit sales and revenue data for city-owned parking lots show upward trend starting around one year after the parking reform. In the private sector, developers report sharing parking spaces between older properties with excess capacity and new developments with limited or no parking. There were significant changes in urban form also. Post-reform developments in deregulated zones have a 31% higher unit density per floor area. Additionally, these new developments are more likely to feature active frontages on the ground floor, with residential, retail, or recreational spaces replacing parking. The increased density and improved urban design are associated with reduced on-site parking supply – developments with fewer or no parking spaces exhibit higher density and a greater likelihood of having active frontages compared to those with more parking availability. At the regional level, a more significant concentration of development is observed in the already walkable and transit-friendly deregulated zone. While the removal of MPRs is not the sole determining cause, I conclude that it acted as a catalyst. Thanks to the more concentrated growth, the university district has successfully maintained bus ridership despite the region-wide ridership decline since its 2015 peak. I also find indication of positive impacts of the parking reform on rents in Campustown. Broader policy implications of a targeted and incremental parking reform, takeaways for other cities, and directions for future research are discussed in the end.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.U.P.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Urban Planning

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2023

Author dc:creator

• Sohoni, Srirang

Contributors dc:contributor

• Lee, Bumsoo
• Chakraborty, Arnab

• Parking Reform
• Minimum Parking Requirements
• Urban Development

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2023 Srirang Sohoni

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/120137

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F120137