For new apartments, the research found that building required parking adds roughly $50,000 to $100,000 per unit, and disproportionately increases the cost to build smaller apartments
Take a look at aerial photos of cities in the US in the early 1900s vs the same cities today. In every single case, 50% or more of the land had buildings torn down to put in flat level parking lots. Population wise they are larger, but they are also way less dense than we used to build.
That’s exactly the point. Cities in the US have expanded despite insane and arbitrary parking requirements. The affordability crisis and the ‘strip-mall-ification’ of the US are something that are inexorably linked. We don’t build affordable housing anymore, we build parking lots and suburbs.
This fixation on suburbs and parking lots is a major factor in the affordability crisis we face
Take a look at aerial photos of cities in the US in the early 1900s vs the same cities today. In every single case, 50% or more of the land had buildings torn down to put in flat level parking lots. Population wise they are larger, but they are also way less dense than we used to build.
That’s exactly the point. Cities in the US have expanded despite insane and arbitrary parking requirements. The affordability crisis and the ‘strip-mall-ification’ of the US are something that are inexorably linked. We don’t build affordable housing anymore, we build parking lots and suburbs.
This fixation on suburbs and parking lots is a major factor in the affordability crisis we face