In Somerville, Massachusetts, the sun is setting on a law that has been on the books for decades requiring any new development in this city to come with off-street parking.
"This is something we have been talking about for a long time," said Somerville City Councilor Willie Burnley Jr. "Data shows that mandatory parking minimums increase the cost of development, particularly for affordable housing developers."
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Burnley co-sponsored a bill that would waive those minimums, and Thursday night, the Somerville City Council voted to do away with them.
In a city that deals with its fair share of traffic troubles, city councilors say the more parking you build, the more congestion it brings.
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"We have to make sure that our residents who love our community can afford to stay in it," Burnley said. "We know this is going to pay dividends down the road in very subtle ways that are going to make Somerville more livable for everybody."
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If all this sounds familiar, Cambridge became the first city in the commonwealth to waive these parking minimums back in 2022.
"I think it is going great in Cambridge," said Cambridge City Councilor Burhan Azeem. "One thing we found was that we were able to build cheaper houses if we didn't have that parking spot."
Azeem estimating almost 100% of new affordable housing is exercising this waiver.
"I don't think most people would have noticed, but it has helped in making a lot more affordable housing possible in small little ways that are really really beneficial," he said.
Henry Grabar agrees, and he would know: He literally wrote the book on parking, as author of "Paved Paradise, How Parking Explains the World."
"Parking is at the foundation of everything you see in the city," Grabar said. "The thinking here, and in all these other cities, is if we stop requiring parking we make it easier to build housing, especially simple, entry-level housing that might not include amenities that are optional, like having your own parking space."
The law in Somerville will go into effect on Feb. 1 to allow city staff time to prepare.
"What we are doing here is saying there are things that we think are more important than having access to a parking spot," Grabar said. "Not baking car ownership and car use into every single design of every building and if at the end of the day it means it is slightly harder to park on the street that is a problem we can solve in other way."
