Parking in Charlotte

[DCtransplant]

I think it's an interesting idea. It's a parcel right next to the Greenway leading uptown. So I assume that part of your target demo is someone who works uptown and wants to walk or bike to work but not live or pay uptown/south end prices.

It could work?

I will be very interested to see how they enforce the no car rule. I'm not sure it's possible to enforce? When I lived in DC there were plenty of people living in apartments that would just find street parking in the neighborhoods and leave their cars there until the next time they needed them - could be a week or two. Definitely annoying for neighbors but is it really a reason to petition against a development?

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

[kermit]

 

 

I never really thought Larkin was cool before tonight:

[KJHburg]

^^^ that last comment I think was talking about an affordable housing project at YWCA property on Park Rd not the Seversville project. 

was that just the public hearing for the Seversville apartment project when will the vote take place? 

[kermit]

2 hours ago, KJHburg said:

was that just the public hearing for the Seversville apartment project when will the vote take place? 

I believe they pushed the vote to the next meeting due to the length of discussion on the project last night.

Regardless the outcome in Seversville, the most interesting outcome from the meeting was Gurbb’s statement that all of their multi-family will be parking light from now on.

[KJHburg]

The depaving of America is the title of this article.

https://www.bdcnetwork.com/new-uli-report-chronicles-depaving-america?

here is the ULI report from Pavement to Parks

https://americas.uli.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/ULI-Documents/Pavement_to_Parks.pdf

Edited June 22, 2020 by KJHburg

[kermit]

Pittsburgh appears ready to pass a resolution removing any requirements for off street parking for new town or row houses.  The policy was brought about from complaints about garages and driveways fudgeing up walkability. Some folks were upset the zoning amendment didn't go far enough, they wanted every cub-cut to need to get a zoning variance.

So yea, no reason Charlotte can't remove all parking minimums as a start to creating a less car dependent city (Pittsburgh transit is no better than Charlotte's)

https://www.post-gazette.com/business/development/2020/07/02/Pittsburgh-Planning-Commission-off-street-parking-curb-cuts-garages-development/stories/202007020087

 

[kermit]

An amazing stat, and the phrase ‘secondhand driving’ is now a permanent part of my lexicon.
 

 

 

[NYtoCLT]

1 hour ago, kermit said:

An amazing stat, and the phrase ‘secondhand driving’ is now a permanent part of my lexicon.
 

 

 

I was originally skeptical of 100MM people in US not having a driver's license, but I guess if you count everyone under 16-17 it's not totally unbelievable.  That does make the stat misleading though, when I was 12, I wasn't driving myself, but was still doing a large amount of travel by car (with my mom driving me).  Not saying the foundational point isn't correct, but it makes it seem like a larger percentage of the population is not reliant on cars.

[videtur quam contuor]

I was discussing the uninsured/underinsured coverage and liability umbrella options with my agent a few years ago. She said that insurance data shows I should encounter about 25-33% of the vehicles on the road which should not be there. Unlicensed/uninsured driver, uninsured car owner, uninspected vehicle, alcohol/drugs involved, speeding, and numerous other issues that mean the interaction should not  occur. And if the time of interaction is late Friday and Saturday evening that percentage goes WAAAAY up.

[Madison Parkitect]

1 hour ago, NYtoCLT said:

I was originally skeptical of 100MM people in US not having a driver's license, but I guess if you count everyone under 16-17 it's not totally unbelievable.  That does make the stat misleading though, when I was 12, I wasn't driving myself, but was still doing a large amount of travel by car (with my mom driving me).  Not saying the foundational point isn't correct, but it makes it seem like a larger percentage of the population is not reliant on cars.

They've gotta be taking into account people too young to drive, because even if you're generous with adults who don't have licenses (the very elderly, the very poor, the people who live in big cities with no need to have one, etc.) I don't see how you'd get 1 out of every 3.3 people.

[videtur quam contuor]

https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policyinformation/pubs/hf/pl11028/chapter4.cfm

Not up to date information (2011) but 211 million licensed drivers so the 100 million figure includes children, aged, non drivers of in between age, those without interest or means and all the rest.

~72 million age 0-17:

https://datacenter.kidscount.org/

[Nathan2]

Disappointing to hear that Charlotte voted to use public money ($10 million) to help a private developer build a parking garage at the North Tryon project uptown. Seems to go against what the city has been trying to preach. Even worse council members voiced their displeasure about this but voted for it anyways. Imagine how much affordable housing that could have built. 

https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/business/biz-columns-blogs/development/article244194707.html

[kermit]

30 minutes ago, Nathan2 said:

Disappointing to hear that Charlotte voted to use public money ($10 million) to help a private developer build a parking garage at the North Tryon project uptown. Seems to go against what the city has been trying to preach. Even worse council members voiced their displeasure about this but voted for it anyways. Imagine how much affordable housing that could have built. 

https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/business/biz-columns-blogs/development/article244194707.html

"Charlotte: We make sure there is a home for every car!"

Edited July 14, 2020 by kermit

[NYtoCLT]

I feel like people keep talking about how we are not going to repeat all of Atlanta's mistakes only to repeat every single one of them.  It is really disheartening.  

[PeytonC]

If you were heading into Uptown for evening exploration and needed somewhere affordable and safe to park, where would you choose? I used to park at 7th St Station but I'm not rich. Any other good options? I know you guys will know.

[Madison Parkitect]

53 minutes ago, PeytonC said:

If you were heading into Uptown for evening exploration and needed somewhere affordable and safe to park, where would you choose? I used to park at 7th St Station but I'm not rich. Any other good options? I know you guys will know.

There's some free parking on Stonewall in front of Whole Foods and the Uptown 550 apartments. 3 spaces in each location, I think.

[kermit]

1 hour ago, PeytonC said:

If you were heading into Uptown for evening exploration and needed somewhere affordable and safe to park, where would you choose? I used to park at 7th St Station but I'm not rich. Any other good options? I know you guys will know.

you can park at 7th street and buy anything at the market and get your ticket validated for two hours (maybe 90 minutes?). I highly recommend breakfast at Yolk! I often have good luck around First Ward Park as well.

Edited July 16, 2020 by kermit

[CLT>]

On 7/15/2020 at 7:16 PM, PeytonC said:

If you were heading into Uptown for evening exploration and needed somewhere affordable and safe to park, where would you choose? I used to park at 7th St Station but I'm not rich. Any other good options? I know you guys will know.

There is usually plenty of available on street parking on N Church between 5th and 10th, and on N Brevard by First Ward Park. Also Tryon often has plenty of available spaces. On street parking in Charlotte is as safe as deck parking, and since the Pandemic on street parking is free any day of the week!

[PeytonC]

20 hours ago, CLT> said:

There is usually plenty of available on street parking on N Church between 5th and 10th, and on N Brevard by First Ward Park. Also Tryon often has plenty of available spaces. On street parking in Charlotte is as safe as deck parking, and since the Pandemic on street parking is free any day of the week!

I had no idea! Thanks for the great suggestions fellas. And I love food so yeah - good tip.

 

 

[kermit]

 

[Madison Parkitect]

Hopefully this becomes a tipping point for the city and developers start to realize building giant decks is a bad idea for a lot of reasons.

[nakers2]

A bit of a dive into my thoughts as I went about my business today:

I went to the Central Ave Harris Teeter today. I’d compare their parking lot to being a similar size to a “suburban European” town. Despite this they were just as busy, if not busier than any normal Teeter on a Sunday afternoon. The lot was nearly at capacity, and many people were utilizing street parking and the pedestrian entrance as well. Certainly preaching to the choir on this forum, but it exemplifies the simple fact that lack of, or limited parking does not necessarily deter business, even in car centric cities.

If the above example isn’t enough, let us look at the Myers Park Harris Teeter which, despite being in an objectively less walkable, and more affluent (as in a car is just expected) area, has a similar in size, if not smaller lot then the Central location. In fact the only place smaller might be the Uptown one. People still patronize it.

Last but not least, as I work in Concord (but it’s not exclusive to this area), I’ve noticed a trend in suburban development which I like. It involves building shopping developments as a series of smaller buildings with parking surrounding them, rather than one large structure (think a Walmart) and a massive parking lot in front. As someone who’s getting their CDL I’m sure I’ll appreciate large parking lots, especially near highways, however as a development nerd I see the benefits of this as you typically will have the parking you need, and you avoid the jam of people trying to get to the front, instead allowing people to funnel to where they need, spreading things out. This is also more cost effective than decks, and once again, spreads out potential choke points (think the Metropolitan deck.)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

A bit of a dive into my thoughts as I went about my business today:

I went to the Central Ave Harris Teeter today. I’d compare their parking lot to being a similar size to a “suburban European” town. Despite this they were just as busy, if not busier than any normal Teeter on a Sunday afternoon. The lot was nearly at capacity, and many people were utilizing street parking and the pedestrian entrance as well. Certainly preaching to the choir on this forum, but it exemplifies the simple fact that lack of, or limited parking does not necessarily deter business, even in car centric cities.

If the above example isn’t enough, let us look at the Myers Park Harris Teeter which, despite being in an objectively less walkable, and more affluent (as in a car is just expected) area, has a similar in size, if not smaller lot then the Central location. In fact the only place smaller might be the Uptown one. People still patronize it.

Last but not least, as I work in Concord (but it’s not exclusive to this area), I’ve noticed a trend in suburban development which I like. It involves building shopping developments as a series of smaller buildings with parking surrounding them, rather than one large structure (think a Walmart) and a massive parking lot in front. As someone who’s getting their CDL I’m sure I’ll appreciate large parking lots, especially near highways, however as a development nerd I see the benefits of this as you typically will have the parking you need, and you avoid the jam of people trying to get to the front, instead allowing people to funnel to where they need, spreading things out. This is also more cost effective than decks, and once again, spreads out potential choke points (think the Metropolitan deck.)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[kermit]

There is some interesting analysis of the effects of Seattle's reduction (and elimination in some places) of parking minimums. Its a useful comparison to Charlotte since our transit systems are not dramatically different (although Seattle has invested lots of $$$ in a high frequency bus system which CLT has not done).  In general, as minimums were reduced, developers built less off street parking in multi family projects.

Quote

Most developers closely adhered to the minimum parking requirements. About 34% of the developments included the exact amount of minimum parking required in the code; nearly 30% of the buildings in areas where no parking was required took full advantage of the revised standard (70% provided some parking even here). Demonstrating the effect of the reforms, nearly 88% of buildings in areas where 0.5 spaces per unit were required included less parking than required under the pre-reform standards. In areas where one parking space per unit was required, more than two-thirds of developments included exactly one space per unit, while only one-third exceeded that minimum standard. 

Overall, about two-thirds of approved projects provided more off-street parking than required by the parking regulations, which suggests that the developers felt the market demanded at least some additional parking. Nevertheless, the revised regulations led to developers supplying fewer spaces than they would have had to under the old regulations.

While the study did not directly examine affordability (it was assumed that less parking would lower housing costs), they did find that higher-end projects were more likely to be built with above minimum levels of parking.

In short, it appears that developers are taking advantage of reduced parking minimums in most new projects, so it does look like this particular piece of deregulation is likely to reduce the cost of housing and improve walkability (this assumption is based on geometry). 

https://transfersmagazine.org/magazine-article/how-developers-respond-to-parking-reform/?mc_cid=226327184d&mc_eid=5983f4a60f

 

Edited November 21, 2020 by kermit

[kermit]

New peer-reviewed study which documents the causality between parking and traffic. Its not a big surprise, but it is nice to have statistical documentation that adding parking spaces causes more driving.

Axiomatically, this also means that reducing parking availability will lead to less driving.

 

 

[nakers2]

Visited Charleston last weekend, not my first time, but my first time staying outside of the downtown area (last min trip, couldn’t find a good deal on the peninsula) and it led to me having to contend with parking in a dense, pre-automobile downtown area. Charleston does have public transit, and free circulators, but the reality is that most people drive, and it was busy. Despite this, I had no issues with parking, and while I did have to pay, the $1 per half hour public decks, and street parking were more than enough to satisfy my needs. Some cities, like Charlotte, have TONS of parking, and charge a premium. Charleston has cheap parking, in well concealed decks and along nearly all streets, and most importantly: walkability. Not a scientific observation at all, but I’ve always been of the opinion that there’s a sweet spot where parking remains welcoming enough not to deter visitors, while also maintaining a cost that encourages walking, and as a result, reduces unnecessary “in and out” driving. Much like when I visit a city like DC, I often park and don’t touch the car for the day, or multiple days. I’d compare Charleston’s parking to that of a lot of European cities. It exists, but it doesn’t make itself “known.” Like in Charlotte or other places with massive “early bird special” signs on each block.