As you can read elsewhere in this issue of The Tribune, the Reno County Planning Commission took some time at its latest meeting to go through some potential changes to parking rules in the zoning regulations.
At their heart, the proposed changes are mostly to make procedures smoother by giving the planning commission more flexibility with setting parking requirements on a case-by-case basis via conditions of a permit, rather than having to waive rules that are based on the type of use and the size of the building. More to the point, the proposals are being made because, time after time, businesses say they don’t need as much parking as the zoning regulations require, and the planning commission has repeatedly agreed.
That much is enough for us to support changing the rules for how much parking is needed. Building parking costs money, and parking minimums that are too high get in the way of investment in the things that really make a difference. For a new business, especially, that piece of equipment to do the work or the extra bit of starting inventory will always be more valuable than those last couple of parking spaces that will sit unused 99% of the time when the business is open. With limited exceptions, parking spaces have a bad return on investment and are subject to diminishing returns. The first few parking spaces at any business will do it the most good, with each additional parking space adding less value than the ones before.
The cost of parking lots isn’t just in the price of pavement. There is also the opportunity cost of the land they take up. What could that space be if it wasn’t parking? Could it be another business or green space or housing?
Too often, parking is required to suffice for annual (or rarer) peak demand. It’s most noticeable with big box stores that haven’t had a full parking lot in years, no matter how hard they push Black Friday sales. Abbyville’s rodeo arena doesn’t need 1,000 parking places for the two nights of Abbyville Frontier Days, for example.
This isn’t as simple as big parking lots being bad, though. The Hutchinson Sports Arena parking lot could fit a football field on either side of the arena, but it fills up for several days of the NJCAA Men’s Basketball Championship every spring and for graduations. It also gets good use for basketball games, some Dillon Lecture Series installments, and occasional other events. The Kansas State Fairgrounds parking lots also have a long enough peak use to justify their size.
But the fact is, neither the arena nor fairgrounds actually have enough parking for their peak use. During the tournament and during the weekends at the fair, some percentage of guests end up parking on streets nearby. That’s the way it ought to be. It’s OK to walk a couple of blocks to a big event. Downtown Hutchinson doesn’t need more parking just because it fills up a couple of times a year for parades.
Reno County is right to make it easier for businesses to avoid having to over-build parking. Cities in the area with their own planning and zoning regulations would do well to examine whether their parking requirements are at the appropriate level, as well.
– The Hutchinson Tribune Editorial Board