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<br />and office parks are so big that you can't even get out of them within a comfortable walking
<br />time. Not only that, but the walk isn't usually pleasant. Harsh parking lots and busy arterial roads
<br />await the pedestrian-most people will not voluntarily subject themselves to such conditions.
<br />Therefore, each property must be able to park all of its customers and employees on-site. To do
<br />this, parking lots must be sized to meet every possible situation, including the biggest day of the
<br />year.
<br />Downtowns, however, can be different. Properties are small and close together and connected by
<br />a walkable sidewalk network. It is comfortable to walk from place to place. In fact, it can be a
<br />pleasure. Many private downtown parking lots, though, still contain menacing signs that say
<br />things like "Keep out! Unauthorized vehicles will be towed at owner's expense." If those signs
<br />corne down, however, and property owners are willing to share their parking, an amazing
<br />opportunity opens up--the number of parking space needed can be reduced.
<br />In The Next American Metropolis: Ecology, Community, and the American Dream, architect and
<br />city planner Peter Calthorpe explains shared parking this way:
<br />The complementary relationship between land uses in a mixed-use area encourages multi-
<br />purpose trips. Thus, a single parking space can serve several land uses. Additionally, peak
<br />parking demand for different land uses is often generated at different times if the day, week, or
<br />season. This allows joint use of the same parking spaces for several uses.
<br />In Suburban Nation, Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Jeff Speck come to the same
<br />conclusions:
<br />Each of the factors that distinguishes (downtowns) from sprawl-on.street parking, mixed-use,
<br />transit, pedestrian viability, ,etc.-also reduces the number of parking spaces that are needed...
<br />therefore, it is improper to apply the standard suburban parking requirements to a mixed use
<br />neighborhood.
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<br />Parking expert Patrick Siegman, of NelsonlNygaard Consulting, points out that Palo Alto's
<br />minimum downtown parking requirement, which is very conventional, is 4 spaces per 1,000
<br />square feet of retail space. However, parking surveys indicate that the actual parking demand
<br />experienced in Downtown Palo Alto is 2.36 spaces per 1,000 square feet of retail space. The
<br />minimum requirement is more than a space and a half over the observed peak, which shows that
<br />Palo Alto has not yet adjusted their parking requirements to take advantage of the efficiencies of
<br />their downtown. Mr. Siegman estimates that it would cost $229 million to bring all of Downtown
<br />Palo Alto up to the 4 spaces per 1,000square feet standard.
<br />To illustrate how shared parking really works, let's use an example. Assume that in a fictional
<br />downtown there is a theater which sits right next to an office building. The theater has about
<br />1,500 seats, which means at its peak it needs about 500 parking spaces. The office building is
<br />167,000 square feet in size, which means that at its peak it also needs about 500 parking spaces.
<br />If these buildings are in non-downtown settings (or if they are in downtowns but have "keep out"
<br />signs in their parking lots) then they each need a parking lot which has at least 500 spaces, which
<br />creates a total of 1,000 parking spaces between them. But, if they are located in a downtown
<br />environment and they agree to share parking, then they may only need 500 spaces for both
<br />buildings, or only 250 each! This is because of their differing periods of activity. During the day
<br /> 1"~6 10
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