Texasota Posted April 12, 2013 Share Posted April 12, 2013 Office towers have nothing to do with it. Their priority is more about making "complete" neighborhoods, so low rise commercial could actually probably be a good thing because it could help support a permanent residential population downtown. Parking lots and garages are primarily valuable to commuters, who have been prioritized over the last half century anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Talbot Posted April 18, 2013 Share Posted April 18, 2013 I would rather have low-rise commercial in and around DT than a sea of parking lots. At least it adds some sort of conformity. Now, would I rather have a parking lot compared to an abandoned building, that is a harder question. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slick Vik Posted April 18, 2013 Share Posted April 18, 2013 I really don't understand the point of this article. Surface parking is a great use for a downtown lot until there is enough demand to build a tower on it. Are they trying to shame developers into building before there is demand? (good luck with that) Or have local govt pressure landowners to put something else on the lot, which is most likely to be low-rise commercial - or, worse, a parking garage - that will make it even harder and more expensive to redevelop the lot down the line when the demand is there for a tower? What's the objective here? Parking lots are ugly and an aesthetic stain on downtown. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lockmat Posted February 20, 2017 Share Posted February 20, 2017 Reading this article on a "car-free" apartment tower planned for Austin, it mentioned that the city had eliminated the parking requirement for the downtown area. My question is, what if Houston did that, how would developers and the market react? Developers would build them if the market demanded it, is my assumption. It would be death to their project if they didn't. Is a parking requirement simply redundant to what the free market already enforces? We don't require two-car garages in the suburbs, do we? Thoughts? Show me where my blind spots are. Referenced article: http://www.mystatesman.com/business/story-car-free-apartment-tower-planned-congress-avenue/GipIXIKxm5L9QS1BB8bl7I/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Houston19514 Posted February 20, 2017 Share Posted February 20, 2017 11 minutes ago, lockmat said: Reading this article on a "car-free" apartment tower planned for Austin, it mentioned that the city had eliminated the parking requirement for the downtown area. My question is, what if Houston did that, how would developers and the market react? Developers would build them if the market demanded it, is my assumption. It would be death to their project if they didn't. Is a parking requirement simply redundant to what the free market already enforces? We don't require two-car garages in the suburbs, do we? Thoughts? Show me where my blind spots are. Referenced article: http://www.mystatesman.com/business/story-car-free-apartment-tower-planned-congress-avenue/GipIXIKxm5L9QS1BB8bl7I/ Blind Spot No. 1: Houston has no parking requirements downtown. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lockmat Posted February 20, 2017 Share Posted February 20, 2017 4 minutes ago, Houston19514 said: Blind Spot No. 1: Houston has no parking requirements downtown. What about other parts of the city? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Houston19514 Posted February 20, 2017 Share Posted February 20, 2017 Parking requirements are not necessarily just redundant to what the market would require. In many cases, they are a good idea (at least in theory) to keep business owners from imposing their costs on their neighbors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lockmat Posted February 20, 2017 Share Posted February 20, 2017 2 minutes ago, Houston19514 said: Parking requirements are not necessarily just redundant to what the market would require. In many cases, they are a good idea (at least in theory) to keep business owners from imposing their costs on their neighbors. I feel like No Parking signs and a strong towing enforcement would solve the issue, as you would say, in theory. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeerNut Posted February 20, 2017 Share Posted February 20, 2017 I think Midtown would be a good candidate for removing parking requirements. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cspwal Posted February 20, 2017 Share Posted February 20, 2017 I think so too. I don't think anyone would build a parking-free development, but they might make a say a movie theater that doesn't have the required number of parking spaces, since they could assume that a lot of people would be walking, taking an uber, or taking the train (depending on the location) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeerNut Posted February 20, 2017 Share Posted February 20, 2017 All of Midtown is less than a mile from a rail stop. People that don't live in the area complain because they have to pay for parking or don't know where to park. Maybe on certain streets they could cut down on the number of lanes and dedicate them to parking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cspwal Posted February 23, 2017 Share Posted February 23, 2017 On 2/20/2017 at 5:43 PM, BeerNut said: All of Midtown is less than a mile from a rail stop. People that don't live in the area complain because they have to pay for parking or don't know where to park. Maybe on certain streets they could cut down on the number of lanes and dedicate them to parking. A lot of the streets in midtown have parking already. It would be nice if it was more obvious you could park there (maybe mark out the spaces on the street like they do on Bagby) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j_cuevas713 Posted March 1, 2017 Share Posted March 1, 2017 I get annoyed with complaints about parking Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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