17-05-2025
Parking balance: What's the right mix?
May 17—ROCHESTER — Dirk Erickson said the idea of building a 180-unit apartment complex with only 140 parking stalls never occurred to him before he began planning the Bryk at Broadway Apartments.
"I was a little concerned about going 80% (parking) when we were doing this, because we had always rented townhomes before, so everyone had their own garage and driveways to park in," he said.
Now planning a second downtown-adjacent project, Erickson, whose company is Stack Development, has no qualms about a ratio that provides fewer parking spaces than apartments.
City-required parking minimums changed with the 2022 adoption of a new unified development code, but now Rochester City Council members are asking whether such minimums are needed at all. They plan to discuss it during a June 9 study session.
With a proposed 109 parking spaces for 132 apartments near Silver Lake, Erickson said the reduced parking ratio has proven successful at Bryk, which lies roughly four blocks away, near the intersection of North Broadway and Civic Center Drive.
"So far, almost basically fully occupied, we are doing just fine with that," he said of Bryk.
While dipping below a one-to-one ratio for parking is becoming the norm near downtown, Rochester City Council members are asking whether a minimum for developers should be required at all, anywhere in the city.
"Let's not make the city's rules prevent them from going down to zero and see where we end up," Ward 5 Councilmember Shaun Palmer said. "Do I think they will go down to zero? I doubt it, but I think they will have limited parking."
The city's 2022 unified development code requires at least one off-street parking space for every two apartments in most areas of the city, but earlier standards were more complex.
"The parking standards, as they relate to multi-family, were pretty intense," Rochester Planning Supervisor Ed Caples said of previous requirements. "In most zoning districts, the minimum parking requirement was one parking space for a studio or one bedroom, 1.5 parking spaces for a two-bedroom, two parking spaces for a three-bedroom, and I believe three parking spaces for a four-bedroom."
The past standards allowed developers to ask to incorporate fewer spots into developments along transit lines and other amenities or businesses that could reduce the need for tenants to have personal vehicles. However, the process has been seen as time-consuming for developers and city staff, sometimes resulting in added costs or delays for a project.
Christine Lindsey and her husband went through the public negotiation process with the city's Planning and Zoning Commission, as well as the City Council, when they developed Cottage Grove at Saint Marys Townhomes with 15 rental units and no tenant parking.
Located across 14th Avenue Southwest from Saint Marys Hospital, the complex required special permission to build without off-street tenant parking, reserving a few spaces for deliveries and visitors. It's a model that Lindsey, a Rochester native, said her family experienced in other countries.
"My family's lived overseas for so long, we lived it every day, so I understood how it could work," she said.
Within two years, the townhome rentals have included a mix of long- and short-term rentals, leasing to international professionals and patients, as well as younger professionals who wanted to avoid buying a car.
"It's a choice," Lindsey said. "They could afford a car, but they decide they don't want one."
As Rochester invests $175.5 million in federal and DMC funds for the Link rapid-transit system through downtown, Lindsey said she expects to see less reliance on cars by people living and working near the downtown core.
Erickson says that's already happening, since people can go to work without needing a car, while a variety of delivery services and rideshare options exist to meet other needs. As the city continues to expand transit and provide safe biking and pedestrian options, he said tenants are less reliant on personal vehicles downtown.
Among them is Nathan Hoover, one of the Bryk's first tenants.
The 2017 Mayo High School graduate was introduced to the Bryk apartments while working on a marketing video for Realty Growth Inc., which was hired to lease commercial space in the building.
"I've always wanted to live downtown," Hoover said. "It's been a goal of mine, instead of living in the suburbs."
While his decision not to own a car or get a driver's license makes downtown living practical, he said market rents are beyond his reach. Bryk met his needs, allowing Hoover to have a lifestyle in which he gets coffee downtown before catching a bus to his northwest Rochester office.
As RGI's marketing director, he said he finds himself moving throughout the city, but can make it work with public transit and relying on others for a ride when needed.
When it comes to grocery shopping and some other personal tasks, it can be challenging, but relying on siblings and friends, as well as delivery options, means saving the costs of vehicle ownership is worth it.
"It's a blessing and a curse, but I definitely have made it work for my lifestyle," he said.
Going car-free is a choice for Hoover. But Kutzky Park Neighborhood resident Lindsey Rohe says that's not the case for everyone living without a car.
"I used to wear my car like a glove," she said. "I loved having a vehicle."
A 2013 disability left her paralyzed on half her body, ending her ability to drive.
Having lived in two downtown apartment buildings, and now on the edge of downtown, she says her power wheelchair frequently gets her where she needs to go. Otherwise, she relies on public and private transit services.
"It's not a choice, but it is a reality that I need to get a ride everywhere," she said, pointing out she's encouraged by some city efforts to increase accessibility, but also sees the need for more awareness for those who don't drive.
"I can get to Walgreens, Hy-Vee, and other stores at Barlow Plaza on my own," she said of retail locations within blocks of her apartment building. "The intersection (at Civic Center Drive and 11th Avenue) is super problematic. I fear for my safety every time I cross it, but I go anyway."
She said that as the city develops safer routes through and around the downtown area, she expects opportunities to open up for her and others without vehicles.
Wyatt Ryan sees a similarly low reliance on cars at Nicholas Apartments, on West Center Street, where he lives. While he owns a car and rents a stall there, he rides his bike to work daily at Mayo Clinic, embracing the flexibility of living near downtown.
"A lot of (medical) residents and med students do live here, and I know a lot of them don't have vehicles," he said.
He said the current state of Rochester makes it difficult for him to consider giving up his car permanently, but he sees potential for the city to move in that direction.
"I love the idea of not needing a vehicle, but I think depending on where those developments would be, it would be really hard," he said.
Caples, from the Planning Department, says many cities are shifting expectations for apartment parking with such cases in mind.
"It's an ever-evolving field and an ever-evolving understanding of what impacts are for requiring minimum or maximum parking requirements," he said.
It means Rochester won't be alone if it drops parking minimums for future downtown apartment buildings.
Strong Towns, a nonprofit advocacy organization addressing development patterns, reported that nearly 100 U.S. cities, including Duluth, Minneapolis and St. Paul in Minnesota, had removed parking requirements by 2021.
More recently, Northfield dropped its required parking minimums with unanimous city council support.
Northfield Community Development Director Jake Reilly said the effort was gradual, starting with dropping the required parking in the city's downtown historic district several years ago and taking it citywide last year.
"We believe the private market knows its parking needs better than we do and therefore removing minimums means that the business owner can determine its need for constructing or including parking spaces in a project," he said.
Caples said Community Development staff are still studying impacts of changes in other cities and potential consequences locally in preparation for the council discussion next month. There are some potential risks for the city, he said.
"I would say, by and large, reducing to zero, off-street parking requirements and leaving it to the developer leaves open the possibility of spillover on the adjacent roadways and whatnot and the utilization of other parking areas," Caples said of potential negative consequences.
Permit programs and seasonal parking requirements can reduce the amount of on-street parking in an area. However, developers and tenants acknowledge that some car owners spill into the streets when they don't want to pay for off-street parking or none is available.
Palmer said the concern about added on-street parking is why he doesn't want to eliminate off-street parking requirements in neighborhoods outside the city core. However, he said, city efforts are reducing the potential conflict downtown by opening park-and-ride opportunities at the ends of the rapid-transit system and elsewhere.
His fellow council member, Nick Miller, said he sees potential to eliminate parking minimums city-wide for multi-family complexes, but he is willing to start on more limited terms.
He said flexibility in regulations, especially downtown, can advance the city's housing and affordability goals.
Developers estimate that when costs are broken down, the construction of just one interior parking stall costs between $20,000 and $40,000. While outdoor parking lots are cheaper to build, land prices and availability downtown make them difficult to consider.
Since 100 parking spaces can cost $2 million at the low end, the potential high-end rent of $200 per month per space means it would take more than eight years to recoup costs, without accounting for monthly expenses tied to heating the garages, providing security and routine maintenance.
Sioux Falls, South Dakota-based developer Nate Stencil said such costs can jeopardize an apartment's affordability when too many spaces are required and left empty.
For projects like the recently opened Silver Lake Crossing Apartments on Seventh Street Northwest, near Broadway Avenue, he said providing a parking space for 75% to 80% of the apartments meets tenants' needs without unnecessarily adding to development costs.
"At the end of the day, we're the people putting a ton of money at risk to do those types of projects," he said. "If we're comfortable and feel as if the parking won't be an issue to the tenants or won't cause a big enough problem where the building isn't successful, I think it should be up to the developer owner to proceed with those projects within reason."
Could a developer put forward a project with zero parking? That's unlikely, especially with the largest projects, said Chris Osmundson, a representative of Minnetonka-based Onward Investors, which is planning a 283-apartment complex on the south side of Civic Center Drive .
"Most banking institutions, whether it's debt or equity — and this goes for the market-rate and the affordable housing world — they also need to know that the tenants will in fact rent here," Osmundson said. "They do need to have car parking, so a lot of times debt and equity won't let you build a project with no parking."
Onward's project, which is seeking state support to keep rents low, is proposed with 185 spaces for those 283 apartments. That ratio, Osmundson said, hinges on the proximity to downtown and growing transit options.
Council member Miller, who himself rarely drives, said it seems like a logical step with more people finding they don't need cars.
"When we think about how much of our population is not driving, it gives us more flexibility," he said.
Council member Andy Friederichs, who owns three apartment buildings within walking distance of downtown, said his tenants highlight that flexibility.
"Very few of our tenants have cars," he said, pointing to buildings populated with medial researchers, students, nurses and physicians seeking to reduce costs.
With that insight, he tends to support reducing or eliminating parking requirements for future apartment development.
"I do believe it should be up to the discretion of the owner, how they would like to do that," he said. "They are the ones assuming the risk of having no parking."
If at least four council members agree, potential changes to the parking requirements could be voted on later this year, with additional updates to the unified development code.
