The Tacoma City Council is scheduled to decide today on new rules for parking spaces in the downtown core.
Developers of new commercial buildings wouldn’t have to install parking spaces if they didn’t want to, under the proposed code changes that eliminate minimum parking requirements. But if they decide to put in stalls, the rules impose a limit on the number of private spaces they can add.
The goal is to make it easier to build while not encouraging more cars. Residential projects have their own set of rules and aren’t affected by these proposals.
“There’s really no dispute about removing parking minimums,” city planner Ian Munce told the council late last month when it first voted on changes to the code. “The question is, what about parking maximums? For sustainability issues, do you really want more spaces provided than what are needed?”
The new requirements would affect development in an area generally outlined by these streets: Sixth Avenue and South 23rd Street to the north and south, and Tacoma Avenue and Dock Street to the east and west. This includes the University of Washington Tacoma and what is known as the International Financial Services Area, which was created in 2008 as part of the city’s attempt to keep Russell Investments in Tacoma.
Unlike the rest of Tacoma, the IFSA doesn’t have parking minimums or maximums. German billionaire and Tacoma property owner Erivan Haub had proposed a new Russell headquarters on the so-called “superblock,” which is in the IFSA and is downtown’s largest single development site.
John Barline, who is Haub’s attorney and local representative, told the council Jan. 24 that re-instituting parking maximums in the IFSA puts Haub and other property owners at a competitive disadvantage to places with higher maximums, like the suburbs.
“We want to remain competitive. We’re looking for tenants for that, and when the market dictates that and there’s demand, we’d like to be able to respond to it,” he said.
Haub and others have a few ways around the new rules, which wouldn’t allow more than 2.5 stalls per 1,000 square feet. City code allows additional spaces as long as they’re available to the public, not earmarked for tenants. Or, developers can use what’s called a Development Regulation Agreement – a special process intended for major projects in key locations around the city.
“An agreement such as this could help to address the specific needs of projects associated with filling 909 A Street (the former Russell headquarters) or redevelopment of the Haub properties,” Planning Commission chairman Jeremy Doty wrote the council in November.
The planning commission’s recommendations reflect its view that a clean environment and a walkable city are as important as property development.
The proposed changes also would ban new surface parking lots downtown, or the expansion of existing lots on main downtown streets.
The council is scheduled to take a final vote on the code changes at its regular meeting today at 5 p.m.
Kathleen Cooper: 253-597-8546
kathleen.cooper@thenewstribune.com
blog.thenewstribune.com/business
Twitter: @KCooperTNT
UPDATED INFORMATION: More on those proposed rules for building new parking spaces in downtown Tacoma
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