There is a lot of fear and confusion around eliminating minimum parking requirements in North Tahoe. In a recent article published in the Reno Gazette-Journal, the author asks a good question that I’ll paraphrase: since there are no real alternatives to driving in the Tahoe basin (especially in winter), residents need cars to go about their daily lives. So if parking is no longer required, where are people going to park?
That is a good question, but it misses a key point: eliminating minimum parking requirements does not mean eliminating parking. It simply means that property owners get to determine for themselves what an appropriate level of parking is rather than a top-down government agency. Do you want Placer County telling you what to do with your property, or do you think you can make that call yourself?
Without going into other reasons why minimum parking requirements are bad for our communities (like driving up housing costs), we at Strong North Tahoe oppose them because they are inherently top-down. We believe in a bottom-up approach that empowers the people who live and work here to make their own decisions. We believe in freedom.
Leave a Reply