The Mayor of Mexico City, Miguel Mancera, is now pursuing the abolishment of minimum parking requirements, as part of his push to modernize the city’s parking policy.
The proposed overhaul of the city’s parking policy would also allow for increased revenue generation for use in transit projects and affordable housing through parking fees. In addition, construction costs would be lowered — potentially allowing for lower housing prices.
It should go without saying that if Mexico City does do away with minimum parking requirements, that will set a precedent that further large cities in North and South America will likely follow in the coming years.
As it stands, Mexico City’s building code has strict requirements for parking space minimums accompanying commercial and residential (housing) development. This stands in contrast to the fact that only around 30% of trips made within the city are made by personal vehicle.
Streetsblog provides more: “In office buildings, for instance, the city requires one parking spot for every 30 square meters of leasable space. Once you factor in space for ramps and access lanes, that means about 40% of the square footage in an office development must be devoted to parking, said Andrés Sañudo, a Mexico City–based consultant who’s been working with the non-profit Institute for Transportation and Development Policy to help the city reform its parking policy.
“In a recent white paper produced at the city’s request, ITDP recommended eliminating minimum parking requirements and replacing them with maximums. The parking caps would be lower in the central areas of the city. And the more parking developers do build, the larger the amount they would have to pay into a special fund for transit, sidewalk improvements, and subsidized housing. The rules would apply to new developments, while allowing existing buildings to repurpose parking spaces.”
Unsurprisingly, Sañudo noted: “Most of the developers are supporting this. They know what effect it will have on the excel spreadsheets of their project.”
The new parking regulations were actually first expected to be unveiled by Mancera sometime in the weeks following the end of February (when the mayor said that they were a few weeks off). They have yet to appear, though. We’ll keep you posted.
Image via feelgrafix
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