People Over Parking Act could dramatically impact development in Oak Park

The People Over Parking Act, just passed as part of a larger omnibus transit package, prohibits municipalities from requiring parking in areas served by transit.

Under the bill, parking minimums will be eliminated for both commercial and residential properties within ½ mile of a L or train stop, or along bus routes that have 15 minute service (or better) during rush hour.

Taking a look at the map, this impacts a large portion of the land area of Oak Park.

Interactive version here: https://www.yesoakpark.org/people-over-parking-act-coverage-in-oak-park/

Parking minimums significantly increase development costs for multi-family and commercial properties and are an enemy of density (I’m looking at you Pete’s parking lot). This will likely impact Oak Park’s ADU regulations as well, which prevent the removal of parking when building an Accessory Dwelling Unit.

Parking minimums are also a key tool in the NIMBY toolkit, and removing them will help to energize development in Oak Park.

I do foresee some issues however. Looking at the map it creates a sort of swiss cheese pattern, and oddly cuts up some commercial corridors. It would be great to see our Village Board step up and just remove parking minimums from Chicago Avenue and south.