Will Philadelphia Go Backward on Parking Requirements and Housing Affordability?

Housing developers were also confused by the new bill. Although concentrating focus on an inclusionary housing bill introduced by 7th District Councilmember Maria Quiñones-Sanchez, development interest groups worried Clarke’s bill would drive up the cost of housing.

“Doubling the parking requirement will cripple a lot of projects in CMX-4 and CMX-5,” said Brian Emmons, president of the Building Industry Association (BIA), in reference to the city’s two densest zoning categories. “Often due to site specific restraints, there’s only one way to go and that’s down. But underground parking is already very expensive to build. In a lot of these larger projects, the cost of each [underground] parking space could be $80,000 to $100,000.”

Many of the spaces required by the current, lower minimum already sit empty, developers told PlanPhilly.

The bill also faces opposition from the Philadelphia Association of Community Development Corporations.

“Increasing parking requirements requires deeper subsidies for affordable housing,” says Beth McConnell, the policy director for PACDC. “It would mean fewer units being built at a time when there aren't even close to enough resources to meet current demand for affordable homes. This would make it even harder.”

The BIA’s Emmons agrees with Clarke that there is a parking problem in Philadelphia, but says  the real issue is the acculturated norm of free on-street parking. For decades, as the city’s population fell and there were few new residential developments, many residents grew accustomed to parking for free, right in front of their homes.