![]() As of 1999, Donald Shoup had identified thirty-one different North American cities with in-lieu fee programs, including Chapel Hill, NC ($7,200), Lake Forest, IL ($9,000), and Vancouver, BC ($9,708),70 Keep in mind that, since municipal spaces are shared among many users, fees can typically be based on a parking requirement that has been adjusted well downward. Fees per space across the United States range from $2,000 in Northampton, MA, (too low) to $27,520 in Carmel, CA, (too high?). How much in-lieu fees to pay should be based loosely on how much that parking costs to provide, minus anticipated net revenue from users. ![]() This effort can be managed by the city, by a parking authority, or even by a master developer, but the outcome is the same: parking that serves an entire district, located and designed to help that district thrive. Instead of being required to build parking, new developments are required to pay a similar amount into a fund that is then used to build large, collective parking facilities. In most places, the best and easiest way to transition away from on-site parking to something better is through in-lieu fees. Most of the parking for a new performing arts center, for example, should be located at least a block away. How that parking is built and managed can be key to a place’s success or failure. The typical way to densify an unwalkable urban area into a walkable one is to turn surface parking lots into structured decks with a smaller footprint. Many American downtowns need to provide new parking as they grow, especially as ugly surface parking lots become building sites. Provide parking in consolidated facilities.ĮLIMINATING THE ON-SITE PARKING requirement is the clear best choice for every main street and downtown. Rule 17: Make Downtown Parking a Public Utility. Hence this new book, “Walkable City Rules,” an effort to weaponize Walkable City for deployment in the field. While the book does a decent job of inspiring change, it doesn’t exactly tell you how to create it. Sometimes, change was begun and that’s when the problems started. It made its way into mayors’ offices, council chambers, and town meetings, held aloft by people demanding change. Packaged as “literary nonfiction” and “current affairs,” Walkable City was effective at finding readers, armchair urbanists curious about what makes cities tick. It took a while, but many of our leaders have realized that establishing walkability as a central goal can be an expeditious path to making our cities better in a whole host of ways. The timing was fortunate: while the term was not often used before 2010, walkability now seems to be the special sauce that every community wants. ![]() To rectify the sporadic spread of city planning best practices, I published “Walkable City” in 2012. But, like voting for president, just because something is easy to do does not mean that it will be done, or done well. To do it properly would have been easy we used to be great at it. NORTH AMERICA, ALONG WITH MUCH OF THE WORLD, has been building and rebuilding its cities and towns quite badly for more than half a century. Home / Resources / Operations / Walkable City Rules: 101 Steps to Making Better Places
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