Use Parking As A Tool

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Use parking as an implementation tool. Its configuration, design, and relationship to other uses are critical to the mixed-use center’s pedestrian orientation. Adequate parking is necessary to market all of the uses. Residents of the project represent an added customer base for the project’s retail stores but do not in themselves generate enough trade to support them. The stores must draw customers from surrounding areas and, in the suburban locations that are the natural habitat for both regional malls and greyfield conversions, most consumers and residents still drive and require parking spaces. At the mall-to-mixed-use conversions in or near the downtowns of major cities, a greater share of customers walk or use transit, but driving customers still must be accommodated for the projects to succeed.

Determining the “adequate” number and type of spaces takes work, however, in the mixed-use environment, especially one that is well-served by transit. Commercial tenants want sufficient parking near their stores. Residents and office users want some dedicated parking for their cars. Yet the new mixed-use projects still take advantage of shared parking opportunities associated with mixed-use development. The varying daily cycles of the different uses create parking efficiencies. Homes and apartments require fewer stalls during the day when many residents are at work, freeing spaces for the customers of stores. Similarly, office tenants need few spaces in the evening when restaurants and pubs experience peak demand. For these reasons as well as the opportunities they create for convenient and viable transit use, mixed-use projects permit lower parking ratios than similar single-use projects. Lower parking ratios, in turn, allow for increased density, more efficient utilization of the land, and more authentic urban fabric.

Belmar and Mizner Park carefully planned the location of parking to direct consumers to specific locations within the new district. Paseo Colorado was built in large part over an underground parking garage and next to two parking structures that provide an abundant supply of 3,000 spaces. City Place is adding housing to an existing parking garage. Most of the new town or city districts hide their parking structures by placing development in front or on top of garages, at least on the sides that face major streets and public places.

The provision of parking is usually an important public-sector financial contribution to the partnership that creates new mixed-use centers. Public agencies often provide and own the parking, financing it through a low-cost public debt instrument that is serviced by a parking assessment district, tax increment district, or parking fees.

The City of Pasadena owns the parking under Paseo Colorado, and management is shared among the owners. The parking was free at the defunct regional shopping center, but the garage now charges a parking fee with a validation credit. The parking revenue is used to reimburse a $10 million certificate of participation that was issued to help finance public costs associated with the project. Moving from free to paid parking creates a cash flow and adds value to the public/private partnership. On the other hand, there is a risk of alienating customers, especially in markets where they are not accustomed to paying for parking. Particularly in such environments, parking charges might also limit the universe of retailers that can be attracted.

An advantage of former regional shopping centers is their ample supply of existing parking, which serves as a blank slate for the development of mixed-use town centers. Together, some retained surface parking, garages, and shared-parking strategies allow the introduction of a more intense, higher-density mixture of uses. Some projects such as Mizner Park or Belmar have added or plan to add additional parking structures to achieve the intensity of use and urban form desired. Winter Park is now looking at a 1,000-space garage with the Winter Park Community redevelopment Authority. Several projects skinned their parking structures with housing or offices. Concentrating the required parking into several garages frees space for additional streets, civic activities, parks, and more street-oriented development, all of which combine to increase the site’s pedestrian orientation and its identity in the regional market.

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Last edited by TeganDowling. Based on work by JeffBarke and JamesCarlson.  Page last modified on July 26, 2005