Minimum parking requirements have, for decades, hampered residential development in New York City, argues Sophia Lebowitz in Streetsblog NYC. “The average cost of building an underground parking space in the city is $67,500, according to the planning department. The city is filled with examples of developers under-building in order not to have to build costly parking.”

Even in neighborhoods zoned to encourage apartments, requirements to provide one parking spot per unit have prevented the development of more missing middle housing, which is unfeasible on many smaller lots. “A 2022 report from the Regional Plan Association found that removing parking mandates for affordable housing resulted in 36-percent more affordable units annually in the transit zone between 2016 and 2020.”

Now, the city’s new City of Yes zoning reform package could change that. “One of the main goals of City of Yes is to re-introduce the ‘missing middle’ housing to R1-R5 districts by allowing bigger buildings near transit, mixed use town-center zoning, accessory dwelling units, and getting rid of parking mandates.”