Here’s a question: if you have access to a car, have you ever driven it to the DCUSA complex? Or how about your local supermarket?

If you have, chances are that it was under abnormal conditions – you were purchasing a whole boatload of bulky items, or you were running late to a party across town and needed to stop off for something to bring. We’d bet good money that your experiences with parking at these places is a lot like Marc Fisher’s, or David Alpert’s, or Rob Goodspeed’s – that is to say, there’s an awful lot of empty spaces. But the District’s zoning requirement which forces new developments to build parking lots that often go woefully unused could soon be coming to an end.

The current zoning rules (PDF), which have been in place since 1958, requires builders to go through a complex set of calculations depending on the type of operation they run in order to quantify the minimum number of spaces they must create on their property. The changes to the code would remove that requirement.

It seems like common sense to us. The reduction in space devoted to cars certainly has great potential. Fewer required spaces for parking means more space for dense, mixed-use building. Financially, having to include parking spaces (which can cost as much as $40,000 a piece) presents a significant cost barrier to developers, who often times will never see that money back. The current code is unkind to new potential development, practically presenting builders with a hefty bill before they even open – never mind the potential delays involved in creating such space, or the built-in costs consumers are forced to pay for residences that automatically come with a parking space they may or may not use.

Photo by maxedaperture