No-park city

Apartment for sale: great views, close to transit and no parking, if that matters to you. That’s the boiled-down pitch for future buildings in San Francisco, where required garage slots in new construction are going away.

Builders won’t be required to add parking as they are now. The switch, pushed by Supervisor Jane Kim, whose district is ground zero for apartment towers, is all about changing driving and living habits. Residents don’t need their wheels the way the used to.

The population gets around in so many other ways — bikes, scooters, Muni, rental rides, on foot — that owning a vehicle isn’t as popular or necessary as it once was. There’s also the long-standing city Transit First plan that downplays driving. Traffic at nearly any time of day is a headache along with high insurance rates and gas prices and scarce curb space at the end of a driving trip.

This conjunction of popular taste and public policy could shift housing in other ways. It may be cheaper to build in ever-pricey San Francisco without the need for parking. Building designs could improve without the eyesore of garage doors and ramps. Builders will have a choice about including parking.

Still the idea is unsettling. A Board of Supervisors vote approving the change shows a division. Board members in traditional residential areas favored keeping the parking rule, citing the safety and convenience of secure parking in a city with an auto break-in problem. But a majority from denser districts backed the plan, going with arguments about crowded streets leading to changed habits. That’s the reality: A city where owning a car isn’t essential — and soon may not even be possible — for an increasing number of residents.