Bellingham City Council voted in favor of an interim ordinance to eliminate parking minimums on Monday, Dec. 16, in the first action directed in Mayor Kim Lund’s executive order to promote housing development.
In a move intended to provide “immediate relief” to some projects and increase the number of housing units constructed in the city, the ordinance will mean developers can decide how much parking to construct for their projects, rather than that number being dictated by the city’s code.
Currently, the city’s code requires 1.5 spaces per one- or two-bedroom units, two parking spaces for single-family residences, and a range of requirements for non-residential developments, with some exceptions in urban villages.
One more vote remains before the interim ordinance comes into effect: the public will be given the chance to weigh in at a public hearing on Monday, Jan. 13, followed by the council’s final vote that same night. If passed, it will be in effect for a year starting late January 2025, while city staff review the impacts of the ordinance as they prepare final parking regulations.
At least one accessible stall will still be required for all developments, with some exceptions, and more required for projects building more than 25 stalls of parking. The ordinance also outlines requirements for bicycle parking.
Eliminating parking minimums as a housing strategy has found traction in cities across the country and with local housing advocates. Building parking is costly: on average, surface parking spaces in Washington cost on average $83 per square foot — that’s about $16,600 for a 10-foot by 20-foot parking stall, according to a city staff memo.
Ali Taysi, the executive director of AVT consulting which helps developers with planning, permitting and project management, told CDN he’s working on several projects right now that are “barely financeable.” But reducing the amount of parking that needs to be built for a development, making room for more units, could be the difference in making a project possible, he said.
“A few extra units, a 10 or 15% bump in unit count, density, moves the needle significantly on that pro forma to make them attractive to a bank to lend on,” Taysi said.
Scott Pelton, the manager of Whatcom Housing Alliance, told CDN that removing parking minimums has been shown to increase the number of market rate and affordable housing units built, pointing to examples in New York and California. He said removing parking minimums won’t mean developers stop constructing parking, but will allow them to “right size” the number of units.
Two council members expressed hesitancy to vote for the interim ordinance on Monday night, not because they disagreed with the concept of eliminating parking minimums, but because they believed waiving parking mandates without requiring some type of affordability was a “missed opportunity,” council member Lisa Anderson said. Anderson voted against the ordinance.
Council member Michael Lilliquist abstained in an afternoon meeting but ended up voting for the ordinance in the evening, calling the current parking mandates “broken.” He attempted to bring forward an amendment to make the minimums more targeted, including only removing them from developments with affordable housing, urban villages or near transit, but the motion didn’t pass.
Both council members expressed concern that this ordinance would result in an increase in mainly market-rate units and not increase units for people making under area median income.
“My concern is not that removing parking mandates is a bad thing. I think it’s a good thing to remove them,” Lilliquist said. “My concern is we won’t get targeted benefit where we need it most: at affordability.”
Planning and Community Development Director Blake Lyon said simply, scarcity of units does contribute to driving up costs. He said future items coming to the council on middle housing will support the development of more affordable units.
“Having more units out there to choose from gives that balance of power back, to some degree, to the consumer,” Lyon said.
A previous version of this story misstated council member Michael Lilliquist’s amendment. It would only remove parking minimums from targeted areas. This story was updated to reflect the change at 10:34 a.m. Dec. 17, 2024. Cascadia Daily News regrets the error.
Charlotte Alden is CDN’s general assignment/enterprise reporter; reach her at charlottealden@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 123.
