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Planning commission backs end to off-street parking requirement
The Pittsburgh Planning Commission has endorsed a measure that would end the off-street parking requirement for new townhouses and rowhouses — a move designed to curb the proliferation of attached garages and driveways that some view as neighborhood killers.
Commission members on Tuesday backed a zoning amendment that eliminates the requirement for developers to include one offstreet parking space per singlefamily attached unit.
But while the proposed change was seen as a step in the right direction, it did not go far enough for some community groups that see driveways, garages and accompanying curb cuts as detriments to their neighborhoods, even if they are selling points for developers.
In testimony before the commission, representatives for several groups stated that the amenity disrupts the character of neighborhoods, creates safety hazards, cuts into the amount of available on-street parking and drives up housing costs.
“With incredible development activity in Lawrenceville over the past few years, we’ve seen the damage done to entire blocks by new single-family attached dwellings that include integral garages,” said David Breingan, executive director of Lawrenceville United.
He and others recommended that the city ban curb cuts along primary streets in R1-A residentially zoned neighborhoods, where new townhouse and rowhouse developments are most prevalent.
At the minimum, advocates argued that such curb cuts should be subject to variances or special exceptions before the city’s zoning board of adjustment, giving community groups some say in the process.
“The only way to curtail the continued expansion of curb cuts along the fronts of rowhouse blocks is to actively give the community the tools to prevent them,” Mr. Breingan said.
In the end, the commission passed a separation motion urging the city to engage in fact finding regarding the elimination or restriction of curb cuts and to draft legislation to that effect.
Both the proposed zoning amendment and the commission’s recommendation regarding additional legislation will now go before city council for action.
Under current zoning, developers must provide at least one offstreet parking space per singlefamily attached unit. They can go as high as four per unit.
In March, the Peduto administration introduced the proposed zoning change in an effort to “increase pedestrian safety and lessen reliance on automobiles.”
According to city planners, the existing requirement dilutes street life, removes public parking since each curb cut is typically 13 feet wide compared to 18 feet for a single parking space, and decreases pedestrian safety.
For those who live in fast growing neighborhoods like
Lawrenceville, the impacts can be dramatic. Mr. Breingan called the curb cuts an “enemy of equitable development.”
“They destroy our neighborhood’s walkability and accessibility, making it harder to get around — especially for people with disabilities and families, who now have to worry about vehicles crossing the public realm of the sidewalk,” he said.
Off-street parking, he continued, also drives up the cost of housing “at a time when neighborhoods like mine are desperately trying to stem displacement and stretch limited public resources to maximize new affordable housing.”
In their presentation to the commission, city planners, citing a Victoria Transport Policy Institute study, stated that based on typical affordable housing development costs, one parking space per unit increases costs about 12.5%.
Among those joining Mr. Breingan in calling for tighter restrictions was Mike Clark, representing the South Side Community Council.
Curb cuts and attached garages tend to deactivate street level space and are not contextual with the surrounding neighborhood, he contended.
Lawrenceville United, Mr. Breingan said, has pleaded with developers in the past not to include offstreet parking with singlefamily housing on primarystreets. However, it has generally been rebuffed — not because of code requirements, but because of market demand.
“In order to get the price points they want from home buyers, developers perceive that they must include offstreet parking, and that’s what’s driving the construction of them,” Mr. Breingan said.
One developer who supports the elimination of the parking requirement is Todd Reidbord, Walnut Capital president and founding partner.
He said parking should be handled on a case-by-case basis for each development, based on parking demand and mitigation studies and other factors.
Setting parking requirements, “I think that’s 1950 zoning,” he said, adding that the city should be encouraging more public transit.
While the Bakery Village townhouses in Walnut Capital-developed Bakery Square have attached garages, those units are part of the Bakery Square 2.0 complex and are not on a primary thoroughfare.
Like some of the others, Mr. Reidbord believes curb cuts take away from street parking and can pose a danger to pedestrians. “I think it’s better to have a more walkable environment than to be a slave to a car,” he said.