Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Downtown Parking Going Market Based

As previously discussed here, the City of Tacoma is considering updates to its downtown parking regulations.  After hearing public testimony on January 24th and in recent Environment and Public Works Committee meetings [EPW], EPW recommended amendments to the package that would remove the cap from structured parking proposed as part of a downtown building.

As one councilmember put it, by moving away from the "nudge, nudge, wink, wink" nature of the parking standards the City is choosing to honor transparency and encourage development.  A number of downtown property owners, the Tacoma Chamber, and other interested parties joined the BIA in encouraging the City to move to a truly market based solution.

If the amendment proposed by EPW is incorporated into the regulations, the City will allow developers to build only the parking they need, not too much, not too little.  The City will be discussing this proposal on February 14th at 5PM in council chambers and again on February 21st at the same time.

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