Make room for people, not cars. To encourage more housing, ease parking space requirements

Palm Beach County is experiencing a housing affordability crisis. Because of a supply shortage, affordable housing is out of reach for many in our community. We just need more rooftops.

While we’re short units in most every income category, the need increases as we move down the income ladder. It is extremely hard to find anything in our county for people making below 80% of Annual Median Income (AMI), and near impossible for people making less than that.

The solution: build more housing in the right locations, near transit and employment centers. Incentivize the building of workforce affordable housing units through our Work Force Housing Program, and provide housing bond money for affordable housing projects.  We are doing all of these things, but it’s not enough.

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We need to rework our code when it comes to parking, to reflect the reality that a one-bedroom unit for a senior with income below 30% AMI does not require the same number of parking spots as a 3-bedroom, 2-bath for a family of four. That’s why I asked my fellow commissioners to support me in directing staff to change this.

We have several affordable housing projects in the pipeline that are struggling to meet parking requirements. Here’s why: Our parking regulations are 1.75 per unit and .25 guest parking spaces, irrespective of location, number of bedrooms, age or income.

Other places, including the area within Westgate Community Redevelopment Agency boundaries, have different requirements, requirements that do take into consideration these factors (location, number of bedrooms, age, and income). Under the county's current regulations, to lower the requirement, the only option is a 15% parking reduction that staff can approve. Anything more would require a variance that is granted by the Zoning Commission. But these variances cannot be provided in cases of "a self-created hardship," meaning these variances are — practically speaking — impossible to obtain. The reasoning here is that the developer could reduce the density of a housing project to meet the parking regulations; but that would mean fewer, much-needed apartments can be built and that can jeopardize the economic viability of the project altogether.

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I have two projects in my district that are stuck because of this. These are good projects that would create affordable housing with all units for households below 80% AMI and several below 30% AMI. If we don’t do anything, these projects will die. I’m thankful that the Board unanimously supported this. Now we need to amend the Unified Land Development Code, to provide us with flexibility when it comes to parking, so we can get more affordable homes for those who need it most.

Gregg Weiss is the county commissioner for District 2.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Parking in Palm Beach County hinders affordable housing options