Dive brief:
- Renter-occupied homes use fewer parking spaces than new multifamily developments required by state law, according to a study of 175 New Jersey properties by the Rutgers Center for Real Estate at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey .
- A new white paper of the center, co-authored with industry professionals from AvalonBay and Tantum Real Estate, proposes new parking ratio standards that better align with use.
- RCRE recommended an average of 1.41 new lot or garage parking spaces per unit for garden-style apartments, below an average of 1.91 mandated by residential site improvement standards of New Jersey, a difference of more than half the space. For skyscrapers, the study recommends 1.01 spaces per unit on average, below the required 1.33 per unit.
Diving knowledge:
The study, which collected parking usage information on 28,000 total units, found that tenants used 1.60 spaces per unit on average in garden-style properties and 1.08 per unit on average in tall buildings. Both usage ratios are well below New Jersey state requirements.
Reducing the number of parking spaces required would reduce construction and operating costs, which would lead to lower rents, the paper concludes. Less parking would also reduce the property’s environmental impact, whether through the creation of an urban heat island, altered stormwater runoff, or emissions from concrete production.
In recent years, many municipalities have reduced multifamily parking requirements, designed to ensure sufficient space for vehicles as developers create new housing. Some, including San Jose, California and Bend, Oregonhave removed them altogether, and New York has recently proposed to do so as well. Reducing construction and land costs and creating affordable housing opportunities are some of the main reasons why cities are taking this step.
New Jersey standards require a specific number of parking spaces per unit based on unit size and building type, and high-rises require a lower parking density than garden-style properties .
In two hypothetical examples created for the study, a 145-unit garden-style apartment property would require 274 parking spaces under current RSIS requirements, while a 400-unit high-rise would require 399 spaces. RCRE estimates would lower these numbers to 172 and 324 spaces, respectively.
Other considerations
While the RSIS calculation takes property size into account in its parking calculations, it does not take into account other factors that influence parking needs. Areas with high density, such as urban centers, tend to have well-developed access to public transport, alternative transport methods such as walking or cycling and services located nearby, the report says. With these resources at hand, residents are less likely to rely on a personal vehicle.
Areas with lower population density, on the other hand, may have fewer transit options available or resources and amenities located further from their homes. In this case, residents are more likely to own and have cars on the property. The report recommends that policymakers consider reducing parking ratios in areas of higher density.
If each parking space costs an average of $27,900 to build, as the data cited in the study suggests, and parking is overbuilt by 0.5 spaces per unit on average, current parking requirements would increase the construction costs at approximately $13,950 per unit, according to the report. . That would add an additional $2.8 million in construction costs for the hypothetical garden-style property and $2.1 million for the hypothetical high-rise. This, according to the report, translates into an $80 per month premium on rental costs.
“Median rents in New Jersey for units built after 2010 are approximately $2,200 per month,” the report says. “If RSIS were to reduce parking requirements by about 0.5 cars per unit on average, so that the new parking requirements were in line with the parking data as this study concludes, it would be expected that median rents in New Jersey are down nearly 4% per unit, all else being equal.”
