Zoning for Parking as Policy Process: A Historical Review

Zoning for parking is reviewed as a historical process of public policy development. Zoning for parking was relatively rare among US cities before the Second World War. By 1969, however, virtually all US cities with populations exceeding 25 000 zoned for parking as their primary method of dealing with land‐use problems associated with rising automobile ownership rates. A brief history of zoning for parking reveals that despite its continuing popularity, it has almost always been a controversial topic. A review of major studies reveals important aspects of zoning for parking as it has changed over time. Zoning for parking began as an occasional or piecemeal approach to resolving specific problems associated with growing automobile storage requirements. It gradually became the preferred method to ensure adequate parking space in an automobile‐oriented society. It was first employed to address the unusually high parking requirements of more affluent neighbourhoods in higher density areas, but gradually grew to encompass most land uses in most urban areas of any size or location. Zoning for parking originally was a supply‐side strategy, but has since become more demand oriented in its approach. Parking experts originally promoted a diversity of parking standards based primarily on those observed in planning practice. Today they generally advocate more specific parking standards based on broader national experience. Zoning for parking nonetheless appears to be a more flexible strategy today than it was 50 years ago. Parking standards, whether observed in planning practice or recommended by national authorities, have increased much less rapidly than automobile ownership rates over the last 50 years. This may help to explain why a policy so frequently decried as inefficient, ineffective and inequitable has nonetheless managed to survive even in a more socially and environmentally aware world.