What Is Parking Reform?

The Other Parking Problem

When you’re looking for a space, the problem of not enough parking is blindingly obvious. The other problem, of having too much parking, often goes unseen or leaves people thinking ‘how could you have too much?'

It turns out that a city like San Diego can have both: neighborhoods where finding a space feels impossible, alongside far too many acres of underused, unproductive asphalt.

Parking Takes Up an Extraordinary Amount of Urban Land

A parking space is not just the rectangle occupied by a car. It also requires driving lanes, aisles, entrances and exits, ramps, setbacks, landscaping and stormwater infrastructure. A surface parking lot that provides parking for a few hundred cars consumes land that could accommodate: housing; restaurants and shops; offices; parks and public spaces; schools and community facilities or mixed-use neighborhoods. Every acre devoted to parking is an acre stolen from something that makes a neighborhood worth living in.

Parking Lots Make Places Less Pleasant

A parking lot doesn't just fail to contribute something positive - it actively degrades the surrounding area.

Landscapes dominated by parking produce: long, uninviting distances between destinations; severe heat-island effects and zero shade; blank, unsafe expanses of asphalt with fewer storefronts and less street life.

A person walking past homes, shops, trees, and cafes has an engaging experience. A person walking across 400 feet of baking asphalt between isolated buildings is just trying to survive the trek.

Replacing Asphalt With Development Makes San Diego Walkable

The goal of parking reform is not "Take away parking.” The goal is: Use valuable urban land for things that make the city better.

A neighborhood doesn't magically become walkable because someone paints a bike lane; walkability depends on having destinations actually worth walking to. Parking lots are just barriers you cross to reach destinations. Homes, businesses, and parks are the destinations.

Parking Reform is a Fiscal Lifeline for San Diego

San Diego faces a structural budget deficit - our revenue routinely falls short of maintaining basic infrastructure like roads, sidewalks, storm drains, and parks.

(For a deep dive into our city’s financial dilemma, read our explainer on what 17 years of San Diego’s financial reports actually show.)

Urban land in San Diego is extremely valuable, yet a surface parking lot produces almost no tax revenue. Developing that same land generates property tax, sales tax, and local economic activity. When scarce city land is dedicated to idle cars instead of productive uses, the city starves itself of the tax base needed to fix its own roads.

Ending Parking Minimums is NOT "Banning Parking"

Eliminating parking minimums simply means the government stops mandating an arbitrary number of spaces for every project.

It does not mean parking disappears. Developers will still build parking whenever tenants and customers demand it—a luxury apartment block or suburban shopping plaza will still include parking. The crucial shift is that decisions are made by real-world demand rather than an arbitrary formula written into a rigid zoning code.

Solving the Real Parking Problems

Removing minimums doesn't solve every curb issue—spillover parking, delivery access, disability accommodations, and transit gaps still require attention. But instead of forcing every new building to overbuild parking, cities can use proven, targeted management tools:

Residential permit zones to protect neighborhood streets
Market-priced curb parking in high-demand commercial corridors
Dedicated loading zones for deliveries and tradespeople
Shared parking agreements between day and night uses

The Choice Ahead

San Diego’s parking debate is often framed as a choice between "enough parking" or "no parking." That’s a false choice. The real choice is between:

A rigid, top-down system where static regulations mandate parking regardless of actual need.
A flexible, market-driven system where land can adapt to serve people, housing, and fiscal health.

Ultimately, parking reform asks a fundamental question: Does the city exist to serve parking, or should parking serve the city?