I am tackling parking minimums in Charles County and I encourage you to join me in doing the same for your county!
Parking lot minimums make places ugly but also increase the cost of developing an area. Not only that, but the parking isn't actually free. All those free parking spaces are being subsidized by your hard earned dollars!
Are there any advantages to parking minimums? In short, no, there aren't many. The only decent parking lot minimum is one requiring at least some parking for employees ("0.75 spaces per employee" or "1 space per employee at maximum shift" are both decent). Minimums based on gross floor area are fairly useless. Many other metrics for the minimum are also fairly useless. Even employee based metrics can have issues, especially for pedestrianized areas.
Are there disadvantages to parking minimums? Yes! It increases the costs to build anything, more parking lot runoff into the Chesapeake bay, further destruction of habitats, reduced property tax income for the state, poor usage of limited space, and poor pedestrian connectivity/friendliness. These are all big concerns that need to be addressed. Reducing (or even removing) parking lot minimums are the first step to this.
Here is the Charles County parking minimum chart
What can YOU do to help?
Send an email to your local county representatives. In Charles County, these are your commissioners. You can also call them, send letters, or setup in person meetings.
You should also continue to share this petition.
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Email template (commissioners@charlescountymd.gov)
Hello, I am a signer of the "End Euclidean Zoning In Maryland" petition. We are taking aim against detrimental parking minimums that are harmful to our towns and cities.
We urge you to rethink the parking lot minimums in Charles County. They are nonsensical and harmful to our living spaces. We urge you to remove all parking minimums.
sincerely, [You're name].
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General email template
Hello, I am a signer of the "End Euclidean Zoning In Maryland" petition. We are taking aim against detrimental parking minimums that are harmful to our towns and cities.
We urge you to rethink the parking lot minimums in [County Name]. They are nonsensical and harmful to our living spaces. We urge you to remove all parking minimums.
sincerely, [You're name].