Committed to Removing Parking Spaces (Atlanta, Sandy Springs: real estate, 2013, apartments)

[Nanosolar]

Paris is committed to removing 50,000 parking spaces per year. Would love to see Atlanta do the same. Parking decks can be converted to vertical farms, surface lots to parks, street car on every major road.

A more walkable Atlanta equals a healthier and more prosperous city | SaportaReport

[bryantm3]

this is a great idea, but people in atlanta don't see it that way. the automatic reaction is "what? where will i park? why would you want to do this?"

people who don't live in downtown don't realize what the parking lots have done to the neighbourhood. look at it this way: someone decides that your neighbourhood is in a good location for parking for a nearby office park— in essence they have decided that the needs of the commuters outweighs the needs of the people who live in your community. so they come in your neighbourhood and turn three of the houses next door into a parking lot. now, instead of a functional neighbourhood, you've got people driving in and out all day and night, your property value goes down, you've got homeless people hanging out, and valuable space that could be used for something meaningful is lost, in addition to the lost in aesthetic appeal that your neighbourhood has endured.

this is exactly what has happened in downtown— the people who live in downtown were pushed to the side to accommodate the needs of the commuters. homes, parks, and stores were turned into parking lots and parking decks. now the neighbourhood is a miserable place to live. this was caused by unregulated development and improper zoning regulations. how would you feel if this had happened to your neighbourhood?

so it's not about removing your place to park— it's about giving the residents of downtown their community back.

oh, and by the way, the parking lots that are there desperately need to be turned into housing and retail.

[ATLTJL]

Well, to be fair, downtown did get something out of it.

Had there not been any parking there, all those big employers would have just moved to midtown or Sandy Springs or something. Then downtown would just be a wasteland. There wouldn't be much of a good reason to live there had those big employers not made it what it is.

So it's kind of a yin and yang thing.

[noah]

I have mixed feelings about these things. I live intown and am all for the walkable, dense lifestyle but lets be honest there is a mix that works best. Nearly every major city in the country has parking all over its cities. I agree and love seeing the development around me but I don't support the extreme comments that everything must be 20 stories and all parking must disappear. Vibrant downtown's attract people from the whole region and not all of them get their by train.

[midtown mile girl]

If you want to delete parking spaces, you have to up the quality and number of choices for public transportation.

[westau]

Make it something like you can take out half of the parking that you add yearly in rail based transit and I could get on board. Really the best option would be to require more underground parking for new buildings or underground parking with a park on top instead of just completely limiting

[midtown mile girl]

Originally Posted by Nanosolar

Paris is committed to removing 50,000 parking spaces per year. Would love to see Atlanta do the same. Parking decks can be converted to vertical farms, surface lots to parks, street car on every major road.

A more walkable Atlanta equals a healthier and more prosperous city | SaportaReport

If you have ever been to Paris and have seen the drivers over there, you would understand why they would take away parking spaces. Paris drivers are wild!

[Nanosolar]

Originally Posted by westau

Make it something like you can take out half of the parking that you add yearly in rail based transit and I could get on board. Really the best option would be to require more underground parking for new buildings or underground parking with a park on top instead of just completely limiting

I'm all for this. Don't mind the parking as much as the parking decks and empty lots that take up space, aesthetically ugly, kill street activity, become heat islands, encourage traffic, etc. Atlanta should require underground parking. It's in the long term interest of the city to do so.

[ATL Urbanist]

Originally Posted by Nanosolar

I'm all for this. Don't mind the parking as much as the parking decks and empty lots that take up space, aesthetically ugly, kill street activity, become heat islands, encourage traffic, etc. Atlanta should require underground parking. It's in the long term interest of the city to do so.

I agree. The damage done to both the environment and to walkability by parking facilities is considerable.

I think that making significant reductions in parking area in Atlanta will require a concurrent increase in new residential developments built in a walkable format that is attractive to a wide range of people -- such as the mix of small-lot single homes, townhomes and low-rise apartments you see in Glenwood Park. And locating those new developments near transit and bike lanes.

As mentioned above, an increase in safe, convenient alternative-transportation options is needed to reduce parking. Atlanta is working on expanding bike infrastructure, but I haven't seen a concrete plan for increasing MARTA arrival times and that's key.

Author Jeff Speck says: "Nothing kills street life more than a surface parking lot or a lifeless concrete garage butting up to a sidewalk." I think that's true. Just look at all the parking facilities in Midtown and Downtown that are right on the sidewalk -- and in areas with nicely gridded streets that are easy to walk on. That's prime pedestrian-friendly real estate being wasted on housing cars. Think about how much better it would be if there were stores, offices, parks or homes in those spots instead, with parking being underground or hidden behind street fronts.

[Ant131531]

Going to be impossible to Atlanta. Paris can do that because it has a world-class transportation system, walkability that extends for miles and miles around the core, and large population densities. Paris is about 10x as dense as Atlanta and as many as 15-20x as dense as Atlanta in it's tightest core area.