Downtown Parking Public Hearings

Today is the date set for a public hearing on proposed amendments to the Land Use Regulatory Code regarding downtown parking regulations. Last week’s City Manager’s report to the Council included Planning Commission findings and recommendations on changes to existing parking requirements, with a goal of reducing barriers to downtown development.

The findings included the conclusion that “existing minimum parking requirements for new development in downtown are largely considered to be unnecessarily burdensome and a barrier to new development.” Furthermore, the Commission recommends modifying parking regulations to bring them into line with Tacoma’s planning objectives of encouraging environmental sustainability, multimodal transportation options and a compact and walkable urban form. To this end, the council supports the end of parking minimums and the return of parking maximums to the International Financial Services Area.

The public hearing for this topic is scheduled for this Tuesday’s City Council meeting. What do you think? Are the changes good? Bad? Indifferent? Will this open the flood gates to downtown development? Will it produce unforeseen negative outcomes? Does it matter?

For quite possibly more information than you might want on the Planning Commission’s parking recommendations, visit www.cityoftacoma.org.