Colorado state lawmakers are one step closer to abolishing parking requirements for new housing on the Front Range.
Sponsors of House Bill 24-1304 say old parking ratios drive up the cost of development and limit how many units you can pack onto a property. In many areas the ratio is at least one parking spot per unit.
Lawmakers also hope this inspires more public transit.
But one small detail makes HB24-1304 a moot point for mountain towns. According to a news release from state Democrats, this bill would change parking-to-housing ratios only for “residential and commercial properties within a metropolitan planning organization,” known as MPO.
There is not a single MPO in Summit County today. There is only one west of the Continental Divide, in Colorado Springs.
More details from the new release:
Parking minimums increase home prices and rents by requiring developers to use valuable space for cars that may not be fully utilized and could instead be dedicated to more housing units. In 2020, each new structured parking space in Denver cost $25,000 each.
Since the city of Minneapolis eliminated residential parking minimums in 2021, rents have only increased one percent, while Denver saw an average increase of nearly five percent in just the last two years. Research attributes the significant expansion of the housing supply in Minneapolis to the elimination of parking minimums.
The bill does not allow a county or municipality to lower protections for people with disabilities, and it does not prevent a local government from enacting or enforcing a maximum parking requirement or requiring a number of spaces for temporary loading purposes.