On-Street Parking Management Versus Off-Street Parking Requirements

Parking permit districts are a politically feasible way to begin managing on-street parking. Therefore, cities should manage the on-street parking supply when they remove their off-street parking requirements. If parking requirements merely ensured enough parking spaces to prevent spillover, they wouldn&s;t create problems. But they also increase housing costs, subsidize cars, and degrade urban design. As predicted, however, many tenants in apartments without off-street parking do own cars and park them on the nearby streets. Residents of the surrounding neighborhoods understandably complain about parking spillover. Another simple strategy to prevent curb parking spillover from apartment buildings near single-family neighborhoods is to allow the residents of any block to adopt an Overnight Parking Permit District. These districts prohibit overnight parking on the street except by residents and thus prevent nonresidents from storing their cars in front of residents&s; homes. Los Angeles, charges residents $15 per year for an overnight permit.