Say NO to unnecessary Parking! and say YES to more Housing near transit.

On March 24th, City of Miami Commissioners voted 4-1 to restrict and/or rescind parking reductions around Transit (Amending Ordinance 13114 - Table 4 of the Miami21 zoning code). 

This means that any future housing near transit or of a small scale (under 10,000 sf) will need to be approved via an Exception process -- requiring months of extra review time via public hearings -- and delaying the construction of affordable housing.

 

The Ordinance, as currently proposed, would:

·       render small-scale, infill development unfeasible. Small-scale development works with very small margins, and it seldom has room to include parking in small parcels. Parking for small buildings, in most cases, requires the entire ground floor to be dedicated to parking.

·       make new housing near Transit more expensive – less affordable for Miamians. After all, the cost of parking is transferred to buyers and renters.

·       disincentivize small and compact living. By disincentivizing housing in TODs and Transit Corridors, larger buildings that can afford parking garages will be built. To cover the cost of parking, units will tend to be larger and less affordable.

·       remove one of the most important incentives to develop near access to transit. The land around Transit stations is often more expensive. TOD development relies on incentives such as this to make it efficient and economical.

·       encourage new sprawl housing (in the car-dependent suburbs). Without incentives to develop around Transit, future housing will gravitate towards the suburbs – with less access to alternative transportation options.

·       increase traffic since future development will not take advantage of transit, and residents will be required to drive more. Counter to popular belief, requiring parking in TODs and central areas reduces housing options in cities and pushes people to live further away. Suburbanites depend on cars to get to the center city where most employment is. 

·       take from potential housing and turn it into parking. A parking space generally requires about 300sf of area. The Miami21 requires 1.5 parking spaces per housing unit, about 450sf gross area. The average studio apartment varies between 450sf and 500sf.

·       will slow down the delivery of affordable housing. The cost of housing construction is a direct result of the cost of land and construction.  

·       will increase car dependency. According to AAA, the cost of owning a car in 2020 was $9,561 per year. Considering that the average rent in Miami is $2,000 per month, owning a car is about 5 months of rent. 

·       will encourage land speculation. When smaller buildings are discouraged, developers need to assemble larger properties to build. In turn, smaller property owners wait for developers to assemble and buy them out instead of building smaller incremental housing. This delays the construction of housing (vacant land within the Miami metro area is a clear result of a wait-and-see attitude).  

·       reduce predictability in an already jittery development environment. New housing depends significantly on the ability of the developer to ensure its projects are viable. If parking reductions rely on exceptions granted by city commissioners, most projects that could deliver affordable housing will not even consider the risk of being denied.

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With a housing affordability crisis on our hands, the last thing we need is additional construction costs and more red tape. It makes no sense to require more parking where transit is available; we cannot afford more parking if we cannot afford housing. 

We believe in more Housing, more Transit, and fewer restrictions. Parking is an amenity that should be market-driven.

We say build LESS Parking, MORE Housing, and MORE Transit Options.

“If you plan cities for cars & traffic, you get cars & traffic. If you plan for people & places, you get people & places.” Fred Kent