HomeMy WebLinkAbout09-18-17 Public Comment - M. Egge - Parking B-2MFrom:Mark Egge
To:Agenda
Subject:Comment re: Off-Street Parking Requirements for the B-2M District
Date:Monday, September 18, 2017 9:51:57 AM
Dear Mr. Mayor and City Commissioners,
I'm unable to attend this evening's meeting, so I'm writing instead to voice my support of the
scheduled motion to approve “Ordinance 1976 Provisional Adoption, a Text Amendment ofthe Bozeman Municipal Code, Section 38.25.040 to Set Minimum Off-Street Parking
Requirements for the B-2M District, Application 17304.”
Multiple forces are working in Bozeman to reduce the demand for current and future parking.1) The availability of shared mobility services (including Uber, and now Lyft) reduces demand
for on-site parking, especially for restaurants, cafés and bars. 2) Streamline is expandingservice, increasing the proportion of Bozeman residents who can choose to take transit rather
than drive a personal vehicle. 3) As Bozeman implements the Active Transportation Programsin its newly approved TMP, more people will choose active transportation, which does not
require off-street car parking. And, 4) Bozeman's median age declines, Millennials andiGenerationals are choosing to drive less and own fewer vehicles--a trend that transportation
professionals expect to persist.
In light of all of these trends, the city should be reducing parking minimums across all of itszoning designations, simply to keep pace with generational, technology, and transit changes
which reduce the relative demand for parking per customer / housing unit.
All of this comes at a moment when the city staff’s report shows that existing midtownparking is significantly underutilized and that parking minimums are inhibiting
redevelopment. “Free parking” only exists in Monopoly. In my own observations of urbanblight and economic development, I have consistently observed density to be synonymous
with economic vitality. Parking dilutes density.
Finally, there’s an appeal to fairness to be made: parking minimums force those who choosenot to drive to subsidize the parking costs of those who do drive. Subsidies for parking
increase the amount of parking demanded without yielding any benefit to the community.
I would echo the staff report’s suggestion to do away with the parking minimums entirely. Tomy mind, the market can reasonably be relied upon to provide the correct quantity of parking:
developers are responsive to their future tenants, and tenants will demand an appropriatequantity of parking for their customers. Short of eliminating parking minimums entirely, the
modest parking minimum reductions proposed in the B-2M zone is a step in the right
direction.
Thank you,
Mark Egge
1206 S Willson Ave
Bozeman, MT 59715