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The Practice of Parkin§ Requirements <br />By Donald Shoup, FAICP <br /> <br />Cities have needed parkin§ spaces ever since the two-wheeled chariot was invented in <br />Sumeria about 5,ooo years ago, but parkin§ did not become a pandemic problem until <br />the 2oth century when cars appeared in great numbers. <br /> <br />Columbus, Ohio, became the first U.S. city to. <br />establish a paddng requirement for any type <br />of [and use when it began to require off-street <br />parking For apartment houses in tga3, Fresno, <br />California. in turn, became the first U.S. city to <br />establish parking requirements for any land <br />uses other than housin§ when ~t began to <br />require off-street parking for hotels and hospi- <br />tals in $939~ (for author's notes, see web- <br />based enhancements). <br /> <br />THREE ~TEPS IN SETI'ING A PARKING <br />REQUIREMENT <br />TO set a parking requirement, an urban pLan- <br />ner must (~.) identi~ the land use, (z) choose <br />the basis for the requirement, and (3) estab- <br /> <br />I[sh how many parking spaces to require per <br />unit of the basis. Sometimes [he steps are <br />simple and straightforward. For example, a <br />typical parking requirement for an office build- <br /> <br />feet of the buildin~'s floor area. The land use <br />is an office building, the basis for the require- <br /> <br />the parking requirements are more compli- <br />cated. Consider, for example, this parking <br /> <br />ice bays, and vehicles--with a different number <br />of parking spaces required per unit of each <br />basis, <br /> P~anners must interpret some parking <br /> <br />Consider, for exampte, this requirement for a <br /> <br />This requirement also has three bases-- <br /> <br />ZONINGPRACTIC~ [.oa <br /> <br /> <br />