Date: July 1, 2019
Author(s): Anthony Fonseca
Abstract
In the urban landscape, parking structures have evolved to become lean, level- of-service driven objects that occupy valuable space. Recent urban trends have caused planners to rethink the definition of parking structures and their contribution to the functions of the city. In light of the new narrative on the urban parking structure, how can the City of Los Angeles better support efforts to construct parking garages in a manner that enables them to be repurposed for some use other than parking in the future?
About the Project
The advent of autonomous vehicles (AV) has spurred much discussion as to the implication of AV technology on parking demand in the urban environment. I conducted this research with the Los Angeles Department of City Planning as my client to discover what barriers and opportunities there are for the development of adaptable parking as well as what policies the City could employ to encourage development of adaptable parking structures should parking demand decrease in the future. Through my research I found that developers’ business models and timelines have a heavy weight in considerations made for implementing strategies to ensure parking structure adaptability. Another key finding is that low vacancy, high costs of development, and supply constrained markets are more favorable for building adaptable parking structures. Finally, my research finds that prioritizing the form of the parking structure in development standards and shifting emphasis from parking minimums towards the spatial efficiency of the parking layout can help promote adaptability.