Parking Reform Gaining Steam in Downtown Cincinnati, Over-the-Rhine

John Young writes on opinion piece offering support and advice for the Cincinnati City Planning Department as it prepares an Urban Parking Overlay District for the downtown and Over-the-Rhine neighborhoods.

"If approved, the district would remove the requirement for uses in downtown to provide off-street dedicated parking," according to Young, and Young is all for ending off-street parking requirements.

According to Young, the city has added thousands of parking spots in the last six years, leaving the downtown neighborhoods with an overabundance of parking. Instead of the status quo, Young encourages a Shoupista-approved approach to parking innovations, and new kinds of infill development that could be attracted to a parking requirement-free development market.

"Even when parking requirements are reduced or eliminated most banks and investors still require parking to be provided or identified for developments to move forward," explains Young to make a key point. "Removing zoning requirements for parking often allows the developer to build the parking that is really needed and not what is arbitrarily demanded by local zoning controls. This reduces the cost of development and in turn, allows more affordable housing to be provided."

Young includes more details about what a post-parking requirement approach to parking might look like in Cincinnati, as well as the kinds of benefits the city could shoot to achieve in implementing parking reform.