What can eliminating parking minimums do for housing and local businesses? Hear experts share their first-hand accounts of how parking reforms transformed their cities. Join the conversation on Nov. 18 ucla.zoom.us/meeting... #UCLATransportation100

Two DU professors collaborated with data scientists to model how removing parking requirements for new buildings could help thousands of Coloradans who struggle to afford housing. 🏠 Read more here: https://bit.ly/4p284iN 📌 @theconversation.com #DUNewsroom x #AffordableHousing

"City council members voted to keep Bellingham's parking minimums suspended through summer 2026." #Bellingham

"The governor said the proposal encourages municipalities to repurpose vacant or underused commercial sites, such as old shopping centers and parking lots, for housing. It also seeks to promote transit-oriented development...while easing local zoning barriers such as minimum parking requirements..."

“'There has been for years this theater of how you go about dancing around the entitlement process so you don’t trigger new parking standards,' he said. 'And what we have done over that period of time is approved a lot of outdoor dining with a lot of guidelines around it so it doesn’t trigger..."

Dear Urban Land Institute members, Welcome to #SanFrancisco. Let me apologize in advance for the lack of ample free parking. But now that we've removed all our minimum parking regulations, we hope you will enjoy the flowers instead.

If we had more architects and builders who embraced ornamentation, we might have fewer planners demanding complex, highly-articulated building envelopes. Here's a simple five-story box with terra-cotta ornament in #Watsonville, California. It contains 100 homes over ground-floor shops.

America’s soaring rents, home prices, and commute costs have been driven, in no small part, by an unusual cost problem. In many advanced nations, costs stay roughly the same as developers move from building single-family houses to midrise apartments. In the U.S., midrise buildings cost far more.

#SB79 "got 21 votes, just enough to pass — with Sen. Shannon Grove, a Republican from Bakersfield, casting the deciding vote after Southern California Democrat Laura Richardson last-minute flipped her vote from ‘aye’ to ‘no.'" Legalizing apartments near transit is a bipartisan sport.

Last night the city council of Gresham, OR (pop 115k, Oregon's fourth-largest) voted unanimously to repeal costly parking mandates citywide, effective Dec 4. 23 Oregon cities now have zero parking mandates. Join the @parkingreform.org to bring this to your community! (1/2)

Why do builders put up giant McMansions, when zoning allows a fourplex? TLDR: A host of regulations make fourplexes lose money. I read the eye-opening report. Now I'm looking forward to the podcast.

#Evanston, #Illinois, will no longer be allowed to drive up the price of modest apartments near transit by imposing minimum parking mandates.

In #Illinois, a new law will “as of June 1, 2026, prohibit all cities, including “home rule” cities like most of those in the North Shore, from imposing parking minimums on all developments (except hotels and other “transient lodging”) that are close to public transit.”

Last night’s election results should be interpreted as a national mandate to remove minimum parking requirements. www.politico.com/news/2025/11...

In #Berkeley, traffic crashes “injure nearly 700 motorists, cyclists, and pedestrians each year, on average. This injury rate far exceeds the two persons injured each year on average in structure fires in Berkeley.” This is pretty typical for American cities.

#Baltimore has now removed all minimum parking mandates, citywide. It’s going to become a city with more affordable housing, fewer homeless people, less traffic, and less pollution. Happy Tuesday!

Hey kids! Elderly homeowners are voting today. If you want a world that works for you too, vote!

In city after city where minimum parking mandates have been removed, studies have found that substantially less parking is built. In #Seattle, a study of 868 residential developments found that the new buildings collectively included 40% fewer parking spaces than would have previously been required.

In #Illinois, a new law “prohibits municipalities from requiring car parking for residential and commercial uses in areas served by transit.”

What studies show that building more market-rate housing makes homes more affordable? Check out this research roundup. Here's a sample quote: “the preponderance of the evidence shows that restricting supply increases housing prices and that adding supply would help to make housing more affordable.”

Watching the plummeting price of lithium-ion battery packs always cheers me up.😀

Study after study has shown that we can make housing prices fall by building housing at a faster rate than the rate of household formation. Some places will always be more in demand than others. But cheer up! Almost everywhere in America, the "undesirable" areas are much safer than they used to be.

If you want a zoning code that delivers abundant and affordable housing, pass a ballot initiative that requires your city to hire a city economist, and directs them to study the economic impacts of all proposed ordinances and publicly disclose the results. #SanFrancisco voters did. It’s paying off!😀

In #Whitehorse, temperatures drop to -50°F or lower during cold snaps, yet the city council just voted unanimously to remove minimum parking mandates for downtown housing. Why? Cars are built to sleep outside in this weather. Humans aren’t.

On Tuesday, the #Shreveport, #Louisiana, City Council removed all minimum parking requirements, citywide. Are there any planners left who think these costly mandates are a good idea? parkingreform.org/mandates-map...

🚨 100 US cities have now fully abolished parking mandates citywide! Shreveport, Louisiana, pushed the count to the 100th mark! It also became the first city in Louisiana to entirely abolish parking mandates! parkingreform.org/mandates-map...

“…when Dr. Gorbunova and Dr. Seluanov inserted the bowhead CIRBP gene into human cells, the rate of DNA repair in those cells doubled.” If we had hunted them to extinction, we wouldn’t have learned this. I’m feeling grateful to all the 1970s “save the whales” activists.

Who are the leading women working on reforming US building and fire codes (besides @ebwhamilton.bsky.social)? Specifically, I'm looking for the ones aiming to make housing more affordable, while simultaneously reducing fire & traffic fatalities. Knowledge of other nation's codes would be a big plus.

Covering a vehicle's windows with ads generates a little money, but makes riding in it unpleasant. So why do we cover the windows of public buses, but not the windows of other money-losing agencies, like police, fire, public works, and parks & rec? Is this a "staff first, customers' last philosophy?

“Eighty-six percent of what FDNY does is medical emergencies, 2 percent is structural fires. But every street based decision is made around the potential of structural fires. That shows how the decisions we have are not set up to prioritize safer streets.” nyc.streetsblog.org/2025/10/30/v...

I keep seeing signs that some U.S. fire code provisions and firefighting practices may be based more on tradition than on evidence. Here’s an example. Am I wrong?

Looks like a real crowd pleaser! Anybody seen it? The stars discuss “research that shows no difference between fire death rates in single-stair & other residential buildings in #NewYorkCity and #Seattle, two cities that have long allowed single staircases in buildings with as many as six stories.”

In Indiana, 3 unit buildings require sprinklers and state approval. This causes the 6 unit buildings to be the smallest multifamily home to pencil. (We rarely ever see a triplex, quad, or five)

Just finished "Beyond Zoning: Hidden Code Barriers to Middle-Scale Housing." Read this to learn why builders keep putting up McMansions on lots where the zoning allows a fourplex. TLDR: In many towns, hidden code barriers make fourplexes lose money. www.centerforbuilding.org/publication/...

“In May," #Dallas "wiped some of its minimum parking mandates, which had been in place since the ‘60s. The changes included eliminating parking minimums for most office and retail developments, new developments within half a mile of public transport stations and small bars and restaurants.”

In #Wichita, #Kansas, “Bars…are required to have one parking space for every two occupants.” No wonder America has so many drunks behind the wheel.

“The bills, which would allow people to build closer to their property lines and do away with requirements for off-street parking, were approved by the council on second reader…” www.thebanner.com/politics-pow...

“If retail spaces remain vacant for 12 months in downtown San Jose, developers can now apply to turn those once-mandated retail spaces into residences.“ Hooray! Every city that requires retail space should consider doing this. Far too many cities mandate retail space where there’s no market for it.

“In a post at FireChief.com, retired battalion chief Robert Avsec says there's definitely a case to be made that American firetrucks are too large: They aren't as maneuverable in heavy traffic, they're expensive, and they're inefficient for trips that aren't fire emergencies.”

Removing minimum parking mandates is helpful but not sufficient. To achieve the full benefits of this move (more affordable homes, etc.), legislators must pass complementary reforms. #Honolulu’s experience shows that if we don’t, people will use backdoor methods to reintroduce parking mandates...🧵

Colorado’s parking reforms are taking root.

A major change in store on a Shreveport zoning requirement. Parking mandates may go away.

“In urban #Honolulu, the construction of mandated podium parking can add over $68,000 to the cost of a single affordable rental unit in 2025. These costs are passed on to residents in the form of higher rents and purchase prices, including for those who do not own a car.‘

New report on housing & economy by MD Comptoller @brookelierman.bsky.social : MD is 6th most regulated state to build housing. Cites density limits, parking mandates, APFOs, impact fees, expensive & drawn out public input periods w/ extensive appeals. 1/ www.marylandcomptroller.gov/content/dam/...

Honolulu and all cities should eliminate parking mandates.

“Presenting Metro #Vancouver’s new Regional Parking Study 2025 on October 21, senior planner Mark Seinen told council the database shows that the average occupancy rate is 65%.” Sadly, this planner learned the wrong lesson from this data…🧵

Pennsylvania State Representative Greg Scott, along with Rep. John Inglis III and Rep. Nathan Davidson, plans to introduce legislation to ban minimum parking mandates, statewide. Here is the co-sponsorship memo they are circulating to request support. www.palegis.us/house/co-spo...

Or just authorize @california-hcd.bsky.social to issue interpretations that are binding until a court disagrees. (Similar to status of a disapproved housing element.)

When lawmakers pass vaguely-worded bills (like #AB2097) is the ambiguity accidental or strategic? Diplomatic treaties are sometimes deliberately ambiguous, because it lets all sides reassure allies that the language favors them, claim credit for reaching a deal & defer tough issues to a future date🧵