Bill 2- Rightsizing Parking Regulations
What it is:
After extensive outreach, research, and discussions with stakeholders, the Department of Planning and Permitting has prepared a draft bill to update the parking regulations in the Land Use Ordinance. This proposal is intended to implement many of the Council’s policies: Vision Zero, Carbon Neutral Corridors, Complete Streets, Affordable Housing, and Ola: Oahu Resilience Strategy. The primary goals are to reduce the cost of development and housing, provide opportunities to support sustainable transit options, reduce vehicle miles traveled, and encourage a free market approach to parking. Read Bill 2 here.
What it does:
1. Simplify Regulation 2. Reduce and Rightsize Parking Minimums 3.Create Flexibility 4. Prioritize People 5. Prepare for the Future
Why Unbundled Rightsizing Parking Matters:
Makes homeownership more attainable. Parking is expensive to provide. A structured parking space can cost up to $50,000 to build on Oʻahu, and in San Francisco parking increased housing prices 12-13% and put mortgages out of reach for an additional 20-24% of lower income households.(1) Unbundled parking, combined with no parking minimums, allows developers to build only what is needed and residents to only pay for parking they will use.
Provides more equity and choice in our parking system. Traditionally the cost of parking is paid by all tenants and bundled into in their rent or mortgage payment even if they don’t have a car. Currently, 43.7% of Oʻahu households have zero or one car, and 59.3% of rental household have zero or one car, but they are often overpaying for parking they don’t use.(2) Unbundling allows people to choose how much parking they want to pay for, and helps car-free households save money.
Allows developers and the market to govern development and reduce oversupply. Much of the nation’s parking inventory goes unused. In Seattle, about one-third of multi-family parking inventory sit unoccupied (3) and on Oʻahu a study showed that 25-30% of off-street parking in Waikīki was unoccupied.(4) Unbundling allows developers to be market driven about parking they provide and building owners to better manage parking over time.
It is one of the most effective ways to support sustainable transportation and fight climate change. Studies have found that unbundling parking reduces automobile ownership by 5-15%.(5) Unbundling can drive alternative travel modes, and bolster taxpayer investments in bus, rail, pedestrian and bike infrastructure.
Reduces the pressure to build more parking in neighborhoods. Unbundling results in more efficient use of fewer spots and reducing the overall demand for spaces by tenants. Where there is a need for parking in the adjacent neighborhood, any unused spaces (day or night) can be rented to people outside the building thereby contributing to a developer’s bottom line and limited on-street parking.
Unbundled parking is already a best practice on Oʻahu that should be scaled through market-based policies. NO minimum requirements, NO parking maximums; and NO “free” parking included in the unit price.
1. Smart Growth America, Technical Memorandum: Best Practices (2019)
2. The U.S Census: Car Ownership Data
3. Schmidt, Angie (2018). “Landlords in Seattle can’t force renters to pay for parking anymore.” Streetsblog.
4. See Walker Parking Consultants. 2015. Waikīkī Parking Meter Study and Pricing Plan. City and County of Honolulu
5. Littman (2006), retrieved from MTC’s Parking Policy Project: Parking Policies and Best Practices (2015)