Chicago, IL
Housing, Transportation | 2025
Explored the effects of zoning parking minimums on parking spot use and housing development.
In 2022, after the Chicago Plan Commission unanimously approved the city’s comprehensive Equitable Transit-Oriented Development (ETOD) policy plan, the city adopted the Connected Communities Ordinance, which changed the city’s zoning rules by eliminating parking requirements for properties in transit-served locations—those within a half mile of a rail station or a quarter mile of designated bus corridors. In response, the Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT) explored local perspectives on reducing parking minimums and opportunities to adapt parking in developments in transit-served locations to align with the ordinance.
Staff at CNT organized three focus groups to discuss the nuance around the opportunities and barriers associated with parking decisions. Conversations were organized around three themes: policy, economics, and community. Participants included residents, developers, representatives of ward offices, and representatives of community groups interested in creating more affordable development on the city’s South and West Sides. Through these conversations, they learned that residents are much more likely to support reducing parking requirements in dense, walkable neighborhoods that are well connected by transit, and that those neighborhoods reduce the need for parking overall. On the other hand, uneven development and investment in those neighborhoods may make residents more cautious in supporting parking reforms. They also heard that parking requirements can be expensive and stifle development for prospective businesses and housing developers. Throughout, the conversations made it clear that investing in more housing near transit, where there is more demand for alternative travel modes, can reduce the need for parking for residential and business developments.
Staff also collected data on two developments built in transit-served locations after the Connected Communities Ordinance was passed, to explore parking use and assess whether the number of parking spaces was appropriate. They found that parking use rates were around 80 percent, suggesting that buildings could reduce the space they had committed to parking, but also that the parking use at these buildings was more in line with demand after the Connected Community Ordinance was implemented, suggesting that the ordinance was appropriate. The Center for Neighborhood Technology supplemented its findings with an analysis of building permit data to better understand construction trends near transit after major parking ordinances.
The center hopes to use its findings to inform community-based organizations, nonprofit partners, residents, and elected officials on the impact of parking minimums. Community conversations about the analysis brought diverse perspectives into discussions of parking use and built momentum for continued conversations about how limiting parking requirements can boost affordable housing production, create safer and more walkable neighborhoods, and allow developers to align parking with market demand.