A Mini-Symposium from UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies
Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025
In 2005, UCLA Professor Donald Shoup published “The High Cost of Free Parking,” revealing the shaky foundations of minimum parking requirements and explaining how these mandates cause problems far worse than the one they were intended to solve. Since then, more than 100 U.S. cities have eliminated any requirements to provide a minimum number of parking spaces from their zoning code, with hundreds more lifting their parking requirements in key areas like commercial corridors and historic downtowns. In this online event, planners, public officials, researchers, and advocates whose cities were among the first to eliminate parking requirements will share their experiences. Speakers will share why their cities chose to end parking minimums, the new development and opportunities these changes have made possible, and the lessons they’ve learned along the way. After the speaker sessions, attendees are invited to participate in breakout room discussions to share their experiences and consider the effects of parking policies in their own communities.
Session 1: Sharing City Experiences
In this session, we’ll hear from local leaders about why their cities eliminated minimum parking requirements and see examples of new housing and small businesses that resulted from the policy change.
- Sara Bronin, former Planning Commission Chair, Hartford, Connecticut
- Daniel Volland, City Council Member, Anchorage, Alaska
- Aaron Qualls, former Planning and Community Development Director, Sandpoint, Idaho
Session 2: Sharing Knowledge and Resources
In this session, we’ll continue exploring local success stories. We’ll also learn about research and resources that can help planners and community leaders understand what to expect after eliminating minimum parking requirements and navigate what Professor Shoup and others have identified as next steps.
- Daniel Hess, Professor of Urban and Regional Planning, University at Buffalo
- Evan Manvel, former Land Use, Transportation, and Climate Mitigation Planner, Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development
- Tony Jordan, President, Parking Reform Network
Session 3: Learning Together
The last portion of the mini-symposium allows attendees to connect with speakers and other attendees in small-group facilitated discussions.
Claim Your Credits
Attendees who are members of the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) can claim up to 2.25 CM credits from the American Planning Association’s website.
Video Recording
Speakers
Sara Bronin
Founder & Ceo of National Zoning AtlasSara C. Bronin is a Mexican-American architect, attorney, professor, and policymaker whose interdisciplinary work focuses on how law and policy can foster more equitable, sustainable, well-designed, and connected places. She wrote Key to the City: How Zoning Shapes Our World (W.W. Norton), and she founded and directs the National Zoning Atlas, which aims to digitize, demystify, and democratize information about zoning in the United States. She also served as Chair of Hartford’s Planning Commission.
Daniel B. Hess
ProfessorDaniel Hess is a professor in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Buffalo. Hess served as chairperson of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning from 2017 through 2022. Central to Hess’s research is addressing interactions between housing, transportation, land use, and other public concerns. He develops new pathways for understanding the complex socio-economic and ethnic landscape of cities and spatial inequalities. He also explores equal access to resources from urban neighborhoods, focusing especially on the changes in gay neighborhoods and the LGBTQ+ population diffuses to other metropolitan locations. Hess has authored papers studying the effects of parking reform.
Tony Jordan
President of Parking Reform NetworkTony Jordan is a nationally recognized champion for rethinking parking policies. Inspired by reading The High Cost of Free Parking, he founded Portlanders for Parking Reform in 2015 and went on to co-found the Parking Reform Network (PRN) in 2019. As PRN’s president, Tony leads a dedicated team and frequently presents at public meetings and conferences, including SXSW and YIMBYtown. He lives car-free in Portland, Oregon, with his family, enjoying multi-day bike trips and strategy board games when he’s not advocating for smarter parking policies.
Evan Manvel
former Land Use, Transportation, and Climate Mitigation PlannerEvan Manvel has spent three decades working on programs and policies to cut climate pollution. At the State of Oregon, he led the creation and adoption of Oregon’s revolutionary parking reforms, led several publications including Oregon’s Parking Management Jump Start Guide and “Lizard Brains on Planning,” and worked with several cities to reform parking management. He previously worked for some of the northwest’s leading conservation organizations and serves on the Parking Reform Network board.
Daniel Volland
Anchorage Assembly MemberDaniel Volland represents District 1, which includes the urban core of Anchorage, on the Anchorage Assembly. He is passionate about housing abundance, active transportation, and public health. He is also an optometrist, small business owner, and dog dad.
Aaron Qualls
Senior Project ManagerAaron Qualls, AICP, is a senior project manager with SCJ Alliance Consulting Services, working out of SCJ’s downtown office in Sandpoint, Idaho — located within a historically remodeled building made possible by off-street parking reform. Aaron is a Strong Towns contributor, former president of APA ID, and the former Planning and Community Development Director for the City of Sandpoint. Aaron enjoys collaborating with diverse stakeholders, community members, and decision-makers to find common ground on even the most complex issues. Serving for over 14 years as a city official in both the private and public sectors, he has developed and implemented a wide variety of data-driven and community-focused plans within the Inland Northwest.