New homes with no parking? LA City Council considers ending parking requirements

In Los Angeles, two things often feel impossible to find: a parking spot and an affordable apartment.

Now, some L.A. City Council members are proposing a policy that could make it easier for renters to find housing — as long as they’re willing to forgo off-street parking.

Councilmembers Bob Blumenfield and Nithya Raman introduced a motion Tuesday calling for city planners to report back to the council about a potential citywide elimination of parking requirements in new developments.

“We must find ways to reduce the cost of constructing new housing,” the motion reads, “and eliminating parking requirements is one way to do so.”

The proposal is in early stages. Any final decision on ending parking minimums is still many months away, and would require a vote by the full City Council.

Zero parking already allowed in some zones

Parking requirements have already been removed for projects located within half a mile of major transit stops under the 2022 state law AB 2097. The new city council proposal could expand that policy to the entire city.

Blumenfield and Raman — chairs of the council’s planning and housing committees, respectively — are floating the idea at a time when housing construction in L.A. has been stagnant for years, hovering far below state-mandated goals.

Advocates for boosting housing production cheered the new motion.

“This is one of the most significant motions we've seen in years on housing affordability in the city,” said Azeen Khanmalek, executive director of Abundant Housing L.A., a nonprofit that advocates for affordable housing.

“We have a critical choice to make,” he said. “Are we going to prioritize housing for cars? Or are we going to prioritize housing for people?”

Parking debate ‘always brings people out’

In some neighborhoods where new apartment buildings are already under development with zero on-site parking, the issue has become a lightning rod.

Parking spots are not included in most projects approved through Mayor Karen Bass’s Executive Directive 1, a program to speed up the construction of buildings made entirely of income-restricted apartments.

Conrad Starr, president of the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council, said community members have long-standing concerns about developers using new laws to pursue “cookie cutter projects that are designed to minimize investment and maximize return.”

He said residents have expressed concern about people moving into parking-free buildings and crowding out the neighborhood’s limited street parking. The issue “always brings people out,” Starr said.

“This includes families that perhaps currently live in apartments and are not provided parking,” Starr said. “If they have small kids, for example, it may not be feasible for them to park several blocks away.”

How parking mandates raise rents

The city’s parking mandates vary depending on the type of housing being built. But generally, developers must provide one parking space for every one-bedroom apartment, or more for larger units. These requirements increase construction costs and reduce the amount of space builders can use for apartments.

A 2020 study from UC Berkeley’s Terner Center for Housing Innovation found that building a parking structure for a new affordable housing project raises construction costs by as much as $38,000 per apartment. Another study found that bundling parking with each unit increases rents for L.A. tenants by about $200 per month.

But in a city where the vast majority of households own a car, many developers would likely choose to continue providing on-site parking, even if the city no longer required it.

“Developers and property owners are still looking to sell or lease their units, and there are a lot of people out there for whom parking is really important,” Khanmalek said. “Parking is not going to disappear.”

Eliminating parking requirements would allow developers to cater to renters who may want to ditch their car — and save some rent money in the process, said M. Nolan Gray, a research director at the housing advocacy group California YIMBY.

“Many Angelenos actually want the option to live car-light or car-free,” he said. “And when we mandate off-street parking, we take away that option.”

Businesses would also be allowed to ditch parking

The L.A. City Council proposal would also apply to new commercial developments. The motion says giving small businesses in L.A. the option to reduce or eliminate on-site parking would help “level the playing field” with competitors.

“Amazon is not required to provide parking for its delivery vehicles that flood many of our neighborhoods, and neither are pop-up restaurants that operate under our sidewalk vending rules,” the motion reads.

Some other California cities have already ended parking requirements for new developments. They include San Francisco, Sacramento and Culver City.

What happens next?

Before the proposal can be voted on by the full City Council, it has to get approval from the council’s planning committee. It has not yet been scheduled in committee.

If passed, the motion would require the Department of City Planning and the Department of Building and Safety to deliver a report back to the council outlining the feasibility, as well as the costs and benefits of enacting a citywide elimination of parking requirements. The motion does not say how quickly the departments would have to produce that report.