For Immediate Release: October 10, 2022
Media Contacts:
Jeannette Lee, Senior Researcher and Alaska Lead
jeannette@sightline.org, @JLee907
Catie Gould, Transportation Researcher
catie@sightline.org, @Citizen_Cate
ANCHORAGE, AK – The Anchorage Assembly is considering an update that would give property owners and developers options for obtaining parking reductions. But does it go far enough? The current proposal would still require many hours of work and potentially substantial investment by anyone seeking permission to avoid building too much parking.
“Parking capacity is a problem that should be on the business owners to solve,” noted Anchorage dentist Guy Burk. “Why is the city getting involved at all?”
The best way to get rid of unused parking is to stop forcing people to build it in the first place. But with the exception of downtown, parking mandates currently apply to more than 100 different business and housing types across the city of Anchorage, from dry cleaners to bingo parlors to triplexes. The city can grant a business permission to build fewer spots, but the process to apply can be onerous.
Parking mandates are a common part of land use code that require new developments to provide a certain amount of off-street parking, regardless of whether it is actually needed. The city’s own studies show that the most properties never use all the parking they are required to build.
Anchorage has the opportunity to join many US cities and the states of California and Oregon, who have decided to return that power to the people who have a much clearer idea of parking needs for the properties they own, projects they’re developing, or businesses they run. The Mayor, Assembly, and other city officials could choose to put more trust in individuals to decide how much parking to provide.
Sightline Institute researchers Catie Gould and Jeannette Lee have co-written an article on this issue, “Save Anchorage from Parking Mandates.” Their article includes local case studies and interviews with business owners and housing developers who have been impacted by parking mandates.
About the Authors:
Jeannette Lee, Sightline Institute’s senior researcher and Alaska lead, focuses on democracy and housing issues from Sightline’s office in Anchorage, Alaska. Prior to Sightline, she served as a consultant at the Adaptation Fund and United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, a federal natural gas researcher, and a journalist for The Associated Press in Alaska and Hawai`i and Atlantic Media Company in Washington, DC. Find her research here.
Catie Gould, Sightline Institute researcher, focuses on climate and transportation policy. She brings a decade of experience in engineering and data analysis into Sightline’s efforts to decarbonize our transportation system. Prior to coming to Sightline, she led advocacy work for better bike and bus infrastructure in Portland and wrote about local transportation issues. Find her research here.
About Sightline Institute: Sightline Institute is an independent, nonprofit think tank providing leading original analysis of housing, democracy, and energy policy in the Pacific Northwest and beyond.
