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SITE NAVIGATION

Housing

Parking Revisions

Housing

Parking Revisions

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Parking Strategy

The City has prepared a draft Parking Strategy that revises the City’s Parking Districts and makes recommendations to expand parking maximums and increase bicycle parking requirements for new development. The Parking Strategy also creates a Parking Management Toolkit to provide the City’s Parking Services Division more tools to effectively manage parking in Sacramento. The draft Parking Strategy will be available for public comment through Monday, December 2, 2024.

Click here to comment on the Parking Strategy Public Review Draft , which the City released on October 30, 2024. Alternately, comments can be submitted by email to parkingrevisions@cityofsacramento.org

The City hosted two virtual community meetings to share key recommendations included in the draft Parking Strategy, and to facilitate community feedback. Both recordings include the same presentation of the project details, followed by Q&A sessions.

Based on policy direction set in Sacramento’s 2040 General Plan, adopted in February 2024, off-street minimum vehicle parking mandates were ended in March 2024 for all properties in the city to accelerate the production of housing and to address the housing issues of current residents. The City is now considering expanding maximum vehicle parking mandates in the Central City and within ½ mile of existing high-frequency transit citywide for housing and commercial services land uses to encourage more housing production and lower the cost of new housing.

Sacramento City Council directed staff on January 19, 2021, to end City-mandated parking minimums citywide and introduce parking maximums. This project is also looking at bicycle parking requirements that the City imposes on new development projects to identify ideal bicycle parking requirements for diverse types of projects, including the number of bike parking spaces, and types of spaces (long and short-term). The City has adopted ambitious goals to increase bicycling citywide to meet its goals for equity, reduced vehicle miles traveled, and greenhouse gas reductions. See locations of public and private bicycle racks and bike lockers.

Policy support

The City Council approved the 2021-2029 Housing Element in late 2021. The Housing Element notes that with Sacramento seeing some of the highest increases in rent in recent years and home prices continuing to rise, the city is facing multiple unprecedented housing crises. Thousands of people do not have shelter. Thousands more are severely cost-burdened, spending 50% or more of their income on housing. Many people are also paying so much in rent that they cannot save a down payment to buy a home. As housing becomes less affordable and the supply of housing continues to fall short of demand, it is becoming harder for residents, especially low- and middle-income families and individuals, to afford housing.

The Housing Element includes and implementation program that includes this project (see Program H8 here). The program specifies that the City shall consider further ending City-mandated parking minimums and explore instituting parking maximums along established transit corridors. The City Council approved the Climate Action & Adaptation Plan and 2040 General Plan in February 2024, adopting a range of policies that support this project, including an end to minimum parking requirements citywide that took effect in March 2024.

Program H8 aims to implement Policy H-1.4 (Facilitate Infill Housing Development) by increasing the financial feasibility of residential development by allowing builders to use more of the site for housing. Policy H-1.4 (Facilitate Infill Housing Development) specifies that the City shall facilitate infill housing along commercial corridors, near employment centers, near high-frequency transit areas, and in all zones that allow residential development as a way to revitalize commercial corridors, promote walkability and increased transit ridership, and provide increased housing options.

What will this parking project do?

The project team has collected and analyzed data, gathered research, talked with people in many neighborhoods, and is drafting recommended changes to how we regulate and manage vehicle and bicycle parking in Sacramento. The City expects to complete the project by early 2025. The project team will post opportunities for public involvement to this site when scheduled, with notices also shared through the project lists, which you can sign up for below.

Project status

Fall/Winter 2024/2025
Commission Meetings

November 6, 2024 – Disabilities Advisory Commission (review and comment)
November 14, 2024 – Planning and Design Commission (review and comment)
November 21, 2024 – Active Transportation Commission (review and comment)
Early 2025 – Active Transportation Commission and Planning and Design Commission (recommend City Council approve Parking Strategy)
Early 2025 – City Council considers approving Parking Strategy

November 13 and 14, 2024 – The City will host two virtual workshops to share details and receive feedback on the Public Review Draft Parking Strategy

October 30 – November 2 – The draft Parking Strategy available for public comment

August 2024 – working group meetings on proposed strategy

Spring / Summer 2024 – data collection and analysis

January 2024 – Community workshops for areas around North Sacramento and UC Davis Medical Center and working group meetings

Summer / Fall 2023 – existing conditions

July 2023 – Project kick-off

Current parking mandates and updates

The City revised car parking mandates multiple times in recent years to encourage infill and housing development. See the A Short History of Sacramento's Parking Mandates memo.

In 2013, the City made major changes to parking mandates for the first time in decades by eliminating all minimum vehicle parking requirements in the "Central Business District and Arts & Entertainment District" and ending parking minimums for non-residential projects:

on lots 6,400 square-feet or less
for vertical mixed-use projects that have more than 50% of the building's square footage devoted to residential uses for historic buildings converted to residential uses

The City also created a process that allows project applicants to potentially waive up to 75% of their required parking.

The City removed minimum parking mandates within 1/4 mile of existing and proposed light rail stations in 2019. Those areas were nine percent of the total land are in the city.

In January 2023, Assembly Bill (AB) 2097 went into effect. The State law does not allow Sacramento to mandate minimum parking numbers or ratios within 1/2 mile of what the State defines as a "major transit stop". These areas are forty-four percent of the city. See the AB 2097 parking layer here, The City can mandate minimum parking in fifty-six percent of Sacramento today.

In March 2024, the City ended minimum off-street vehicle parking mandates citywide through the 2024 General Plan policy: LUP-4.14 Elimination of Vehicle Parking Minimums. The City shall not require new or existing development to provide off-street vehicle parking spaces.

Get involved!

Stay informed as the City brings draft recommendations forward for public review and comment, followed by review by City Commissions and City Council. Sign up to receive meeting notifications and other updates on the Revisions to Vehicle and Bicycle Parking Requirements project.

Helpful resources

Sacramento City Code (Title 17 Planning and Development Code) 17.608 Parking Regulations: Includes vehicle and bicycle parking requirements
Sacramento 2035 General Plan
Sacramento 2040 General Plan Development and Land Uses Maps
2021-2029 Housing Element: Includes a program to end parking minimums and add parking maximums.
Bike Rack Design and Placement Standards: This Guide outlines how bicycle parking is installed in Sacramento and provides specific design guidelines for the type of bicycle parking permitted.

Contact us

Your valuable feedback will help to inform this study's final recommendations. If you have any questions or comments about this project, you can email the project team at Parking Revisions.

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