Austin is one of the largest cities in the country without minimum parking requirements after City Council members did away with them late last year.
Builders of apartments, shops and restaurants can now decide how much parking they want, although they must still provide a certain number of parking spots for people with disabilities. Advocates and elected officials who supported the change in November ultimately hoped it would result in builders constructing less parking and encourage people to bike, walk or use public transit instead of driving.
“If we truly want to achieve our progressive goals of making Austin a less car-dependent city, we cannot be forcing developers to be providing car storage in every new project,” Council Member Zo Qadri, who represents Central Austin neighborhoods, said before the vote.
While it’s a little too soon to tell just how much parking is being built, one housing program may provide a glimpse into Austin’s parking future.
In 2019, the Austin City Council created Affordability Unlocked. The policy allows developers to forgo parking requirements and other building rules as long as they set aside at least half of the homes they build for low-income people.
A KUT analysis of 14 Affordability Unlocked projects finds that developers built, in total, about 25% fewer parking spaces than they would have had to under Austin’s old parking rules.
The findings in Austin mirror those in other cities where builders have not had to comply with minimum parking requirements. According to a study of Buffalo, New York, developers built, on average, 21% fewer parking spaces two years after elected officials stopped requiring parking.
Developers in Austin say without parking mandates, they're coming up with their own rules.
"The city removing the parking requirements has allowed us … to really analyze what makes the most sense for our developments,” said Megan Lasch, president of O-SDA Industries, a real estate firm that has worked on Affordability Unlocked projects in Austin. “Versus putting every multifamily development in a box and saying, ‘Everyone do this.’”
Consider a 489-unit apartment building proposed in Southwest Austin under Affordability Unlocked. Instead of the 761 parking spaces the developer would have been required to build, they opted to construct 670 parking spots, according to documents submitted to the city. That represents about a 12% decrease in parking.
Freed of parking requirements for the past five years, Lasch and other developers say they generally ask themselves two questions when deciding how many spots to include. First, who will be living in these apartments? Lasch works on affordable housing projects, so sometimes the people moving in previously lived on the streets and earn very little money. They often can’t afford a car.
The second question has to do with location: Could the people living in these apartments make it in Austin without a car? “Would [less parking] work in a location that doesn’t have a bus stop right there?” Lasch said. “Maybe not.”
But if Affordability Unlocked projects are an indication of how much parking gets built when none is required, some people living in these new buildings may not be happy with less parking than they might have otherwise had.
Five tenants interviewed in the parking lot of Vi Collina, an apartment complex off East Oltoft Street in South Austin, said they sometimes feel there isn't enough parking. The development has 192 spaces for 170 apartments, about 40% fewer spots than would have been required under Austin’s old rules.
On a steamy weekday afternoon, Steve Escamilla carried out a trash bag from the apartment he shares with his mom. “I’ve never really struggled to find parking, at least for my building,” he said. “But then sometimes it’s packed randomly.”
Another tenant, Alyceson Ramirez, was headed to her job as a server at Texas Roadhouse. She said when many of her neighbors come home from their jobs around 8 p.m., the parking set aside for tenants fills up quickly. Some park in spots set aside for visitors.
“Then people are being towed that actually live here,” she said.
There is a bus stop directly across the street from the complex. But in a city with limited public transit, Ramirez planned to get to work by car.
