https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/dec/26/us-cities-parking-lots-climate-walkability

The movement away from parking minimums is not just a big city issue, it has important implications here in the suburbs of the North Penn region. Lansdale Borough, in particular, with emerging new apartment developments and re-development of old real estate is at the center of the storm.

There has been much moaning and gnashing of teeth since the massive Madison St. Parking lot was transformed into the Madison St. apartments, yet the vitality of downtown merchants have not suffered and housing prices continue to rise. With the Luxor apartments coming online Lansdale suddenly has several thousand new residents with walking and biking distance of the the SEPTA station, the post office, two grocery stores and a growing array of Main Street and Broad Street vendors – meanwhile the SETPA parking garage, which has been free to use for much of the past two years – sits almost empty of cars on any given day.

This comment of the article says it best:

“Nashville is among a new wave of cities hoping to do the same. “It’s about the climate, it’s about walkability, it’s reducing traffic and the need for everyone to have a car,” said Angie Henderson, a member of the Nashville metro council who proposed the parking change for the city’s core area.”

It’s time all local suburban municipalities look at zoning requirements related to parking space minimums, and start to envision a future which looks more like the past, before the car was such a dominant element; when people would more often walk, bike or take public transportation to get around. Moving toward this vision could prove not only good for residents and local businesses but open up options for existing real-estate stock which are now often sitting empty due to zoning requirements like parking space minimums.