Fewer Cars Need Fewer Parking Spaces

The Montgomery County Board of Supervisors on Dec. 17 could enlist local businesses’ help in weaning people from their automotive addiction. Under a proposed ordinance, businesses that convince employees and customers to arrive by bike, foot, bus or anything else but car or truck would get a discount on their upfront construction costs. It’s a cunning means of encouraging environmental consciousness.

The county’s development rules, like those in most communities, require that new or expanding businesses install a precise number of parking spaces based on anticipated need.

Parking spaces are pricey to build and maintain. They also generate dirty runoff and create unattractive barren areas. Price- and aesthetic-conscious developers therefore would like to reduce the number they must build.

The proposed ordinance would give them one way to do that. If a business develops a detailed plan to get people to use so-called alternative transportation, then it could construct up to 20 percent fewer parking spaces than the code normally requires.

The county will hedge its bets, though. Businesses would have to set aside land for the spaces in case the transportation plan fails. County officials would check to make sure people really are leaving their cars behind.

Montgomery County is not the first locale to consider this approach. Blacksburg already has a similar law on the books.

It’s a carrot, one more option to make development more flexible. No one must participate, but businesses that do could save thousands of dollars upfront and wind up with grounds that are more attractive. At the same time, fewer cars will mean less traffic, less wear on roads, fewer greenhouse gases and so on.

It won’t work for everyone. Bike racks won’t do much good at a remote shop, for example. Still, there are areas of the county where population and traffic are concentrated enough to support walkers, bikers and bus riders.

At worst, the new rule would sit on the books ignored by builders. At best, though, it would reduce local dependence on the automobile at no cost to taxpayers and serve as a model for other communities in Southwest Virginia.

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