This week the city of Birmingham held the first of four public meetings to gather input for their ‘Right Size Parking Initiative.’

This initiative aims to reduce minimum parking requirements for new development in the city to improve walkability, rent prices, urban sprawl, and environmental factors according to the city website.

“All the research is showing, in all the cities that have already removed this [minimum parking] requirement, that it’s really not a good planning practice,” said Hunter Garrison, senior planner for the city. “They’re driven heavily by suburban land use studies that were done in the 50s and 60s and never changed. And the issue with those is that those parking minimums are based off the assumption that the ideal cityscape is that everyone drives a single car by themselves.”

“So that’s what ends up happening,” he said. “We end up having these sorts of missing pieces around the city where there’s all these parking lots around every building instead of prioritizing pedestrian safety, the walkable experience and quality of life.”

Parking currently takes up 26% of the available land in downtown Birmingham, according to a recent study from Parking Reform Network, a national group dedicated to parking reform.