5 days ago
Housing advocates cheer repeal of Denver parking minimum requirements
At nearly midnight on Monday evening, cheers broke out in Denver's City Council meeting. A bill amendment was passed that repeals the city's parking minimums for housing and development projects, making Denver the second city behind Longmont to do so.
"Individuals, community members and city leaders are starting to realize the benefits of these reforms," said Caroline Leland, who works for the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project.
Leland stood outside of New Charity's House on Welton Street in Denver. The apartment complex, which services people and families making 30% of the average median income, was in jeopardy of being created because of the city's parking minimum requirements. Since the building was proposed to be built near an existing RTD line, they were able to find an exemption and now the completed project has 36 affordable units. The need for parking in projects, Leland said, can be a financial barrier for some developers.
"Requiring parking can be a nonstarter if it doesn't fit into the budget of the building," she said.
With the cost of living still high in Denver relative to other cities, there are signs of easing on the horizon. A push to build more apartments over the last three years has led to average rents either stagnating or lowering in the last year. Leland, who is a renter in Denver herself, says they're signs of policies that are working.
"As a renter coming into the city. I was able to see apartments that had been on the market for a couple months and landlords dropping the price a little bit," she explained. "Because of other initiatives that the city of Denver has done to encourage building housing and reducing costs.
The elimination of parking minimums was also widely praised in council on Monday, with District 10 councilmember Chris Hinds saying it could even help kickstart other projects that are in the city's queue.
"Getting the city out of the business of parking minimums will save 650 hours of staff time each year allowing staff to use that extra time for permitting and getting more projects through the pipeline," said Hines.
"You're seeing parking being built where it's needed and not where it's not needed and that just feels like a very common sense way to handle our parking," Leland added.
