To: City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito Carl Weisbrod, Chairman of the City Planning Commission Members of the City Planning Commission

We support the removal of mandatory parking requirements for new affordable housing near transit in the Zoning for Quality and Affordability proposal. These requirements, which are completely arbitrary and not in any way mandated by actual need or scientif-ic analysis, needlessly inflate the cost of housing. This makes it more difficult to build much-needed housing units and interferes with the goal of helping lower- and middle-in-come New Yorkers stay in the city.

Parking requirements are not helping the cause of affordable housing - in fact, evidence shows they work against it. In New York City, parking in above-ground garages costs more than $21,000 per space to build. Below-ground parking can run up to $50,000 per spot. Re-quiring off-street parking in new developments thus pushes up the cost of creating hous-ing, which makes affordable housing a less appealing prospect for builders and stands in the way of actually constructing it. A city-commissioned study by the NYU Furman Center concluded, “The largest and most difficult zoning constraint affecting the devel-opment of new housing has been the requirement of building on-site parking spaces.” A 2012 study, also by Furman, looked at 317 recently-built housing developments subject to parking requirements, and found that 77% had either the exact minimum or close to the minimum number of required parking spaces. While lower-income households are less likely to own cars, parking minimums will require them to pick up the cost.

Furthermore, the parking spaces mandated by these requirements do not correspond to New Yorkers’ existing mobility habits. According to the Census, New York City is the only locality in the country where more than half of households do not own a car, and we have the highest use of public transportation. In this context, to have housing developments held hostage to parking requirements that residents may not need or want does not make sense. Zoning for Quality and Affordability’s reduction of mandated parking is focused on affordable housing in the most transit-accessible areas. These areas, located within one half mile of a subway, already have low car ownership rates and a mix of public transit options, and access to neighborhoods shops and services. We should be encouraging tran-sit-oriented development in order to build a more sustainable city.

December 11, 2015

Off-street parking space requirements result in unnecessary costs that would be passed along to users who don’t need them, don’t really want them, might not even use them, and who may not be able to afford to pay for them. And New York City can’t afford them at a time when simply having a roof over one’s head is increasingly out of reach for thousands of people.

Paul Steely White Executive DirectorTRANSPORTATION ALTERNATIVES

Gene RussianoffSenior Attorney NYPIRG STRAPHANGERS CAMPAIGN

Thomas K. WrightPresident REGIONAL PLAN ASSOCIATION

Veronica Vanterpool Executive Director TRI-STATE TRANSPORTATION CAMPAIGN

Elena ConteDirector of PolicyPRATT CENTER FOR COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

Eric McClureExecutive DirectorSTREETSPAC