Planning commission hears options to loosen parking minimums, staff to return with targeted proposals

Norfolk Planning Commission members on Thursday revisited the city's parking ordinance and asked staff to return with draft proposals after a months-long study of peer cities. The commission heard that a range of reforms ' from deleting minimum parking requirements citywide to expanding the city's existing exemptions and alternative options ' are possible and that each path carries trade-offs for housing affordability, climate resilience and enforcement. Planning staff member Jeremy summarized the policy landscape and peer examples, telling the commission: "Parking reform is typically just remove the minimum parking requirements for everything," and then described four peer cities with recent changes: Buffalo (Green Code, Feb. 2017), Roanoke (2021), Richmond (2023) and Newport News (recently). He said Buffalo reported removing about 500 surface parking spaces in the first two years after changing its code and that Buffalo couples the change with site-plan review and transportation demand measures for larger projects. Commissioners and staff discussed several options: eliminate parking minimums citywide; remove minimums for specific zoning/character districts (for example, the city's more auto-oriented suburban and coastal districts versus downtown); or expand the exemptions and alternative compliance paths…