At 8:47 PM -0700 9/21/08, Eric Sundquist wrote:
The same article was in the A section of the WSJ this morning.
See, it isn't just the cartoon news that picks it up!
Tim Gruber has been working to reduce parking
minimums through the zoning rewrite. I don't
know how much progress he's made.
Apparently not much. Here is what the "Annotate
Outline"
(http://www.cityofmadison.com/neighborhoods/zoningRewrite/documents/ZRAnnotatedOutline.pdf)
has to say:
Off -street parking and loading. This fairly lengthy section could
constitute its own subchapter or be included in this subchapter. It will
include:
Revised standards for automobile parking, including standards
for "spec" uses and standards based on square footage rather than
number of employees. The standard list of uses allowed within
zoning districts will be used for parking requirements as well.
Revised bicycle parking schedule
Standards for moped parking
Parking design and maintenance standards, including pervious
parking standards
Standards for shared parking and for parking reduction or
reservation of future parking
Revised standards for loading facilities to exempt smaller buildings
That is a whole heck of a lot of jargon with a
heckuva lotta wiggle room for upward revisions in
parking requirements on the part of the city or
desired parking by developers themselves. We need
to see that language boiled down to this: All
current minimum parking standards will now be
maximums; furthermore, there are no longer
minimums.
I tried to schedule a small group meeting with
the consultants on this when they were here a
week ago, but the times were all taken, and
staff is supposed to set something up in October.
See what you can do to set a new standard of
"extreme." They are playing that "balancing" game
that mealy mouthed community planners love to do,
playing one group off against another to come up
with a muddled & meaningless standard.
One complication, which shouldn't be a big deal
but that requires some thought, is that bike
parking and I believe ADA parking are tied to
the current car minimums.
Easy, just reference the old, (i.e., current
standard) ratios and maintain those.
One thing that needs to be changed is this:
Currently the zoning code says (something to the
effect) that bike parking must be equal in
convenience to the average car parking space in
the lot (help me out here, Arthur!). In theory
that is to prevent bike parking from getting put
out by the dumpster. But this should be boldly
changed. Bike parking should be *the* most
conveniently located (non-handicap) parking space
there is. Period. Full stop.
This was one of the fights that I actually was
able to win pretty frequently on the Urban Design
Comm. Most developers were pretty happy to
accommodate bikes in convenient places. Most of
them simply didn't think about bike parking, but
once it was brought to their attention, they
pretty willingly brought bike parking up much
closer to the doors. That is to say, my proposal
for the zoning code to make bike parking the most
convenient spots in the lot would not be in the
least bit onerous.
Bigger problem of course is that staff and
alders already get a lot of complaints about
street parking.
They need to tell their constituents: Welcome to
the big city. Welcome to a place that puts a
premium on its greenspace, its water supply, its
reduced urban heat island effect, its aesthetics,
its walkability, its civilized scale. People over
here in the 6th--not exactly a parking
nirvana--were adamantly against big parking lots
at the zoning meeting. Separately, Coleman
(lurking somewhere around here!) was the driving
(so to speak!) force behind keeping parking
levels low in new developments along Willy St.
Der Wongendörfer & I have tag teamed on the same
topic--with some success, I might add--wrt to new
development out along Atwood Ave.
Shoup has a solution for all of that, but it's a challenge to get it heard.
I think we need to get Shoup here in Madison for
a talk. His ideas have the potential to
completely and thoroughly rewrite history in
terms of urban vitality.
http://shoup.bol.ucla.edu/
But if we can reform parking it will be a game changer.
I think it's going to be a challenge with these middlin' planners.
-Mike
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