Smart Growth Resource Library

Paved Over: Surface Parking Lots or Opportunities for Tax-Generating, Sustainable Development?

Paved Over: Surface Parking Lots or Opportunities for Tax-Generating, Sustainable Development? is a report from the Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT) that analyzes the value of urban parking lots in economic terms and development potential.

From the report: The costs -- economic and social -- associated with large surface parking lots has been receiving more and more attention of late. Parking lots have been credited with impeding the establishment of a quality pedestrian environment, disrupting the urban fabric, encouraging greater auto use, and harming the environment.

In addition to these social and environmental costs, large surface parking lots also have an opportunity cost, which is the economic value of not putting the land on which these lots sit to some other use. In The High Cost of Free Parking, UCLA professor Donald Shoup estimates the cost of free parking to the national economy is over $300 billion annually.

The development potential of parking lots is especially high when the lot is proximate to transit. Park-n-ride lots at rail transit stations, when developed consistent to Transit Oriented Development (TOD) principles, whether that be commercial, residential or mixed-use can support greater densities without the same increase in auto traffic that an auto-oriented development would require. They also have the potential to generate greater sales, property, and utility tax revenues per square foot. And demand for housing near transit is growing, making the development and investment community increasingly interested in building and capitalizing on transit oriented projects and communities. Nearly every region in the country would like to be able to take advantage of this growing market but only New York has a greater opportunity for TOD than Chicago. The purpose of this study is to highlight this regional opportunity by comparing the current economic and social costs of surface parking lots near rail transit stations with the potential economic and social benefits if they were developed into mixed-use, pedestrian friendly, transit-oriented developments.

52 pages (3.2mb); available online as a PDF document at the resource link below.

Resource: http://www.cnt.org/repository/PavedOver-Final.pdf

E-mail to a Friend

View Printer-friendly page

Conservation: An Investment That Pays from Trust for Public Land is intended to help agency personnel and community conservationists make the case for conservation as a long-term economic investment. Find out more   Based on the National Building Museum's exhibit, Green Community is a collection of thought-provoking essays that illuminate the connections among personal health, community health, and our planet's health. Find out more

This web site is developed and maintained by the
National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT),
and supported with funding from the US EPA.
Disclaimer
Copyright © 1996-2010. All Rights Reserved.