The West Seattle Herald asked Seattle District 1 councilmember Lisa Herbold for her take on the trend toward monster apartment complex buildings often with few or no parking spaces now being allowed in our community. Here's what she had to say:

"We have parking exemptions for buildings that are located in areas with access to frequent transit. The underlying principle is intended that housing in areas that is close to frequent transit will be occupied with people who don’t have cars. But, there is no way to insure that this underlying principle is in operation in the building that utilize these parking exemptions. Last year, the Council passed Ordinance 124608, which specifically requested an analysis of the City’s vehicle and bicycle parking requirements for residential uses, here is the report.

Councilmember Herbold’s follow up questions to that report echo some of your concerns:

1. There is little Seattle data on the number of people who have cars living in buildings with reduced parking through the parking exemptions.
2. Also for some of the data points, it is very difficult to disaggregate the Seattle data from King County because the City study was based upon a King County study.
3. The study also mixes data from buildings in areas not eligible for exemptions with buildings in areas eligible for parking exemptions to make general conclusions about unused parking capacity that was not relevant to the experience of individual neighborhoods eligible for parking exemptions.
4. The study suggests that reduced parking requirement result in lower rents but there is no evidence of lower rents in buildings without parking.

It is true that requiring off-street parking affects the cost to build housing. Requiring new apartment buildings to add off-street parking (garages) adds to the overall cost of construction and limits the number of housing units able to be built. Some say that this results in higher rents, but there is no evidence of lower rents in buildings without parking and it is quite possible that the reduction in construction costs resulting from not requiring parking results in greater profitability of development, rather than greater affordability for renters. For your review, I have attached the Parking FAQ that explains the current parking policies and the changes that are proposed under the Mandatory Housing Affordability proposal. In addition, Here is the link to the SMC Land use Code 23.54.020 that discuss the parking requirements for multifamily zones.

Additional modifications to parking requirements are being considered for areas that are close to frequent transit service. I am interested in improving these regulations for property owners that use parking exemptions in their developments to adhere to obligations to a. reduced rents and b. tenants without vehicles under any future legislation.

For concerns you may have now in your neighborhood, the Community Access and Parking Program is SDOT's effort to improve on-street parking management in Seattle's neighborhood business districts and nearby residential areas. Through this program, SDOT works with community members to identify on-street parking challenges and opportunities, develop parking recommendations, and implement changes. Outcomes may include new time-limit signs, load zones, paid parking, restricted parking zones, bicycle parking, or other changes.

Parking issues are primarily discussed in Sustainability and Transportation Committee and as they relate to MHA they may also be discussed in the Planning, Land Use and Zoning Committee meetings. Please sign up for agenda’s to track these issues.