THE HIGH COST OF FREE PARKING

Urban planners typically set minimum parking requirements to meet the peak demand for parking at each land use, without considering either t he price motorists pay for parking or the cost of providing the requir ed parking spaces. By reducing the market price of parking, minimum pa rking requirements provide subsidies that innate parking demand, and t his inflated demand is then used to set minimum parking requirements. When considered as an impact fee, minimum parking requirements can inc rease development costs by more than 10 times the impact fees for all other public purposes combined. Eliminating minimum parking requiremen ts would reduce the cost of urban development, improve urban design, r educe automobile dependency, and restrain urban sprawl.