TO: Mayor and City Council
THROUGH: Keith Stahley, City Manager
FROM: Kristin Retherford, Community and Urban Development Director
SUBJECT:
title
Proposed Code Amendment to Eliminate Minimum Parking Requirements Citywide.
Ward(s): All Wards
Councilor(s): All Councilors
Neighborhood(s): All Neighborhoods
Result Area(s): Natural Environment Stewardship; Safe Community; Safe, Reliable and Efficient Infrastructure; Strong and Diverse Economy; Welcoming and Livable Community
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SUMMARY:
summary
The proposed code amendment updates the Unified Development Code (UDC) to eliminate minimum off-street parking requirements citywide in response to new State Climate-Friendly and Equitable Communities rules.
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ISSUE:
Shall the City Council pass Ordinance 4-23 for the purpose of amending the Unified Development Code to eliminate minimum off-street parking requirements citywide in response to new State rules?
RECOMMENDATION:
recommendation
Pass Ordinance 4-23 for the purpose of amending the Unified Development Code to eliminate minimum off-street parking requirements citywide in response to new State rules.
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FACTS AND FINDINGS:
Procedural Findings
1) The proposed code amendment are amendments to the Unified Development Code (UDC), which are legislative land use decisions under SRC 110.085. Legislative land use proceedings may be initiated by staff by preparing an ordinance bill and placing the ordinance on the Council agenda for first reading under SRC 300.1110. The City Council voted on March 13, 2023 to hold a public hearing on Ordinance 4-23.
2) SRC 300.1110(e)(1)(A) requires that the City mail notice of the first evidentiary public hearing in a legislative land use proceeding not more than 40 days, but not less than 20 days prior to the first hearing. Amendments to the UDC require notice to the Director of the Department of Land Conservation and Development no later than 35 days before the first public hearing pursuant to SRC 300.1110(d).
3) On April 10, 2023, the City Council held a public hearing on Ordinance Bill No. 4-23 and voted to advance the ordinance to second reading.
Proposed Amendment
1) Eliminating minimum off-street parking requirements for all uses citywide
The proposed code amendment, which is included as Exhibit A to Ordinance Bill No. 4-23 in Attachment 1, implements new State rules that resulted from a rulemaking project called Climate Friendly and Equitable Communities (CFEC). Adopted by the Oregon Land Conservation and Development Commission (LCDC) in July 2022, the new rules <https://www.oregon.gov/lcd/CL/Pages/CFEC.aspx> aim to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution from transportation while increasing housing choices and creating more equitable outcomes for Oregonians.
The rules require the City to change how it regulates and manages parking in Salem. Specifically, the City must eliminate all minimum off-street parking requirements for all uses citywide or implement an array of other parking reforms by June 30, 2023, unless an extension is approved by the State.
On November 7, 2022, staff presented the State-mandated parking reform options to the Climate Action Plan Committee. Following a discussion, the committee voted to recommend eliminating all minimum off-street parking requirements citywide. This proposed code amendment moves forward that recommendation. Staff also held a public open house on January 31 to explain the proposal to the community and answer any questions people had.
As described below, the proposal aligns with the Climate Action Plan, allows the market to determine parking amounts, can be implemented relatively quickly through a code amendment without additional staff or resources, and allows the City to voluntarily explore and implement other parking reforms in the State rules.
A. Aligns with Climate Action Plan
The City Council accepted the Climate Action Plan in February of 2022. That plan included Strategy TL40 (Transportation and Land Use): Amend City code to eliminate parking minimums throughout Salem, with priority focus along Cherriots’ Core Network. This proposed code amendment fully implements that strategy, which goes beyond the changes made to off-street parking requirements through the Our Salem project.
The Climate Action Plan describes the strategy has having “medium” GHG reduction potential, and it suggests an implementation timeframe of short-term (occurring in the two years following the plan’s acceptance in February of 2022). The strategy is also described as having three co-benefits: Potential to improve the community’s health; potential to improve the health of Salem’s air, water, and land; and potential to increase mobility choice for Salem’s residents and visitors.
B. Allows the market to determine parking amounts (parking maximums still apply)
Currently, the City generally requires a certain number of off-street parking spaces for each use such as a restaurant, office, or warehouse. For example, a restaurant must provide one off-street parking space per 250 square feet of the building. (There are exceptions based on location, which is explained below.) Under the proposed code amendment, the City would no longer mandate any specific number of off-street parking spaces for each use.
This does not mean that off-street parking cannot be provided. Instead, it means a developer or property owner could determine the amount of parking that should be provided given the market and other considerations. Space not used for parking could be used instead for housing, jobs, or other uses. The City would still enforce maximum off-street parking requirements, meaning there would continue to be a cap to the number of spaces that can be provided per use.
In recent years, the City has started eliminating minimum off-street parking requirements for specific uses and in specific locations. For example, the City removed parking requirements for middle housing - townhouses, two family, three family, four family, and cottage clusters - in early 2022 when it implemented House Bill 2001. The City also removed parking requirements for any use in a mixed-use zone within a quarter mile of Cherriots Core Network, provided the property included multifamily housing. (The Core Network is a network of bus service corridors where frequent service is prioritized by Cherriots.) This change was implemented through the Our Salem project to encourage infill and redevelopment of housing near frequent transit service, which in turn helps reduce GHG emissions from transportation. More recently, the City eliminated all minimum off-street parking requirements within a half-mile of 15-minute transit routes in response to the new CFEC rules.
Overall, off-street parking is already not required on roughly 40 percent of the land within City limits. The places where required parking remains today include largely residential areas in West and South Salem; however, in the Single-Family Residential (RS) and Residential Agriculture (RA) zones, the only housing type that is required to provide parking is a single-family home. Such a home is currently required to provide two off-street parking spaces. Two-family, three-family, four-family, and other middle housing types are already not required to provide off-street parking. The other areas of the city where minimum parking requirements remain today include employment areas in southeast Salem, including the Fairview Industrial area, Mill Creek Corporate Center, and McGilchrist industrial area. These are areas where the amount of parking could be determined by the market if the proposed code amendment is adopted.
C. Can be implemented relatively quickly through a code amendment without additional staff or resources
The City can eliminate minimum off-street parking requirements through this proposed code amendment, which can be and is being facilitated by existing staff. The process to adopt this code amendment includes public notice and a public hearing, but additional City resources or staff are not required.
However, if the City does not adopt this proposed code amendment, the new State rules require that the City instead implement an array of other parking reforms (Attachment 2). Those other parking reforms would require additional staff, resources, and time to implement. Examples of other options include the following:
• Unbundle parking: The City would need to require that the cost of parking for multifamily housing near frequent transit and in walkable, mixed-use areas be separated from the cost of renting or buying a dwelling unit (e.g., unbundle parking.) That requirement would apply to existing and new multifamily housing units. The City does not have an existing program through which rental leases or purchase agreements/contracts for multifamily units are inspected or tracked. A new program would likely need to be established and funded.
• Paid parking: The City would need to institute paid parking for at least 10 percent of all on-street parking spaces, which includes all local residential streets as well as business districts. Based on a preliminary analysis, Salem currently charges for less than one percent of on-street parking. That does not include Salem’s residential parking districts - RP districts - because the price of parking spaces in that program does not meet the State’s requirements. To meet the requirements, the cost per vehicle would need to be increased from $15 a year to at least $15 a month. If the City made that increase, roughly 4 percent of Salem’s on-street parking would be considered priced. If the City of Salem implemented paid parking in the downtown area, that percentage would be increased to roughly 5.5 percent. Meeting the 10 percent State threshold would require additional City resources, funding, and time.
Other parking reform options that the City would be required to choose from include unbundling parking for all leased commercial developments citywide, requiring large employers to provide a commute benefit to employees, creating a tax on commercial parking lot revenue, and eliminating minimum parking requirements for many uses and locations such as schools, bars, vacant buildings, studio/one-bedroom apartments, small businesses, and historic districts/buildings.
D. Allows the City to voluntarily explore and implement other parking reforms in the rules
If the City eliminated all minimum off-street parking requirements, the Council could voluntarily choose to implement other parking reforms but would not be restricted to the timeframes, program restrictions, and other requirements in the CFEC rules. For example, the City could implement a paid on-street parking system in the Downtown Parking District as recommended by the Downtown Advisory Board. Such a system could be shaped by the City and implemented on the City’s timeline.
2) Revise maximum parking requirements
The proposed code amendment implements the CFEC rule provision that requires cities with populations over 100,000 to revise the maximum amount of off-street parking spaces that are allowed. For example, the proposed code amendment establishes the following parking maximums for multifamily housing:
• 1.2 off-street parking spaces per studio unit
• 1.75 off-street parking spaces per non-studio unit
(Currently, the parking maximum for multifamily housing projects that do not have a minimum off-street parking requirement is 1.75 spaces per unit.)
3) Additional changes
The proposed code amendment makes several other changes, including the following:
• Increases the amount of bicycle parking required for multifamily housing to 1 space per dwelling unit, which is the minimum amount required by the CFEC rules
o The current requirement is a minimum of 1 space per dwelling unit in the Central Salem Development Program area and within ¼ mile of the Core Network, and a minimum of 4 spaces or 0.1 spaces per dwelling unit (whichever is greater) for all other locations.
• Allows bicycle parking requirements to be met by existing bicycle parking spaces in the public right-of-way when existing buildings are converted to other uses in mixed-use zones
• Exempts the installation of electric vehicle charging stations from triggering pedestrian connection requirements in parking lots
• Deletes pedestrian access standards that are no longer necessary in zones or overlay zones due to newer pedestrian access standards that apply citywide
• Clarifies the definition of building frontage
• Deletes references to required minimum parking requirements in other SRC chapters
This proposed code amendment is part of a larger package of State-required parking reforms that the City is working to implement. Some of the parking reforms are mandated by the State without any options. Those reforms include requiring large parking lots to provide street trees along driveways and other streetscape features; and allowing and encouraging the redevelopment of underused parking. Staff plan to implement these changes later this year.
The City has already implemented other parking reforms through a code amendment that went into effect on December 28, 2022. They included requiring electrical vehicle charging conduit to be installed for 40% of the parking spaces provided on a site for a new multifamily or mixed-use building.
Public Comments
Eleven public comments were received as of April 10, 2023 (Attachment 3). The comments are summarized and addressed below.
1. A comment was received in support of the proposal, stating that it would encourage climate-friendly infrastructure - mainly electric vehicle charging stations - in existing commercial parking lots.
2. A comment was received in opposition of the proposal, stating that it would make it harder and more inconvenient for people to buy local and support small businesses.
Staff response: Under the code amendment, businesses and developers can still choose to provide off-street parking spaces for customers. The minimum number of spaces would no longer be mandated by the City. That amount would be driven by the market and other considerations.
3. A comment was received in opposition of the proposal, stating that it would discourage downtown visitation and further erode Salem’s economy and quality of life. The comment also suggested that many new parking spaces be required to have electric vehicle charging stations.
Staff response: Within the Downtown Parking District, off-street parking spaces are already not required by the City. This code amendment would not change that. In addition, the City updated the UDC in December 2022 to require electrical vehicle charging conduit to be installed for 40% of the parking spaces provided on a site for a new multifamily or mixed-use building. That was done to in compliance with the new State CFEC rules.
4. A comment was received in opposition of the proposal, particularly changing parking standards along transit routes that the City does not control.
Staff response: The new State CFEC rules require the City to eliminate minimum parking requirements within ½ of 15-minute bus routes. The City adopted a code amendment in 2022 to meet that requirement. This code amendment does not change that.
5. A comment was received in opposition to the proposal, citing concerns over potential neighbor-to-neighbor competition for parking, lack of infrastructure investments, and incomplete assessments of impacts such as the conversion of triplexes to short-term rentals.
Staff response: The timing of this code amendment is driven by the new State CFEC rules, which establish deadlines for completing parking reforms. The deadlines are not tied to infrastructure investments, though the City is continuing to make infrastructure improvements in Salem. In terms of impacts, triplexes are prohibited from being converted into short-term rentals in Salem.
6. A comment was received in support of the proposal, stating that the parking changes would complement the work that has been done through the Our Salem project and Climate Action Plan. The comment also pointed to the benefits of building up and helping to preserve soils and farmland.
7. A comment from the organization 350 Salem was received in support of the proposal, citing climate and housing benefits. Specifically, the comment stated that fewer off-street parking spaces would increase density and therefore encouraging walking, biking, and transit use, and it stated that mandating parking increases housing costs.
8. A comment was received in support of the proposal, stating that minimum parking requirements have led to developments surrounded by acres of mostly empty asphalt. The comment suggested that the City devote more effort to code enforcement and neighbor-to-neighbor mediation to resolve conflicts over parking spaces.
9. A comment was received, citing concerns over potential impacts on residential areas and asking the Council to investigate whether the proposal would impact Single Family Residential (RS) zones.
Staff response: The code amendment eliminates minimum off-street parking requirements citywide, including in RS zones.
10. A comment was received from the Southwest Association of Neighbors (SWAN) in opposition to the proposal, stating that there needs to be a viable plan for parking and improved citywide public transit before eliminating minimum parking requirements for new multifamily projects.
Staff response: The timing of this code amendment is driven by the new State CFEC rules, which establish deadlines for completing parking reforms. The deadlines are not tied to transit service levels. The City continues to work the Cherriots, the region’s transit agency, to coordinate land use planning and transit service and to encourage transit improvements.
11. A comment was received in opposition to the proposal, citing concerns over adding pressure for parking spaces downtown.
Staff response: Off-street parking is already not required in downtown Salem, and this code amendment does not change that.
Substantive Findings
SRC 110.085 establishes the following approval criteria for an amendment to the UDC to be approved:
a. The amendment is in the best interest of the public health, safety, and welfare of the City; and
b. The amendment conforms with the Salem Area Comprehensive Plan, applicable statewide planning goals, and applicable administrative rules adopted by the Department of Land Conservation and Development.
Findings demonstrating the proposal’s conformance with the applicable approval criteria are included in Exhibit B to Ordinance Bill No. 4-23.
BACKGROUND:
On March 10, 2020, Governor Kate Brown issued Executive Order 20-04, directing state agencies to reduce climate pollution. In response, LCDC launched the CFEC rulemaking project in September 2020. The rulemaking project amended State rules governing Oregon’s planning system for communities in Oregon’s eight most populated areas. Many of the rules align with the work already accomplished through the Our Salem project <https://www.cityofsalem.net/government/shaping-salem-s-future/our-salem-planning-for-growth> as well as the ongoing work to implement the Climate Action Plan <https://www.cityofsalem.net/community/natural-environment-climate/climate-action-plan-for-salem>. The City is working to implement the rules, which require the City to conduct regional scenario planning and update Salem’s Transportation System Plan, among other changes.
Eunice Kim
Long Range Planning Manager
Attachments:
1. Ordinance Bill No. 4-23
2. Parking Reform Overview
3. Public comments through April 10, 2023