Boulder staff propose eliminating citywide minimum parking, new TDM rules and on‑street changes

City of Boulder planners presented a package of proposed changes to the city’s Access Management and Parking Strategy (AMPS) on Jan. 22, urging elimination of minimum off‑street parking requirements for new development and the creation of an enforceable transportation‑demand management program.

The proposals, presented by Lisa Hood, a planner with Planning and Development Services, would remove minimum parking requirements for new and redeveloped properties, accompany that change with a tiered TDM ordinance that requires ongoing funding guarantees for larger developments, and tighten on‑street parking management through changes to the Neighborhood Parking Program (NPP).

The recommendation to “eliminate minimum parking requirements citywide for all land uses” grew from the 2017 AMPS report the City Council approved and from subsequent best‑practice research, Hood said. The change would apply only to properties seeking permits or land‑use approvals; existing development would not be retroactively regulated. Hood said staff also examined maximum parking rules but recommended reserving those for specific geographies rather than a citywide cap.

Chris Haglund, principal project manager for Transportation and Mobility, described a three‑tier approach for the TDM ordinance. Under staff’s outline, the smallest developments would be exempt, mid‑sized projects would file TDM plans and post annual financial guarantees, and the largest projects would have trip‑generation targets, monitoring and remedial financial guarantees if targets are missed. Haglund said the financial guarantees would be sized by development scale and estimated occupants and would fund ongoing programs such as fare subsidies that have annual costs.

Samantha Bromberg from Community Vitality summarized on‑street proposals that would change NPP rules to prioritize areas near schools, commercial nodes and recreation sites, consider paid curb parking in some neighborhoods, and limit the number of residential visitor permits in crowded zones. She said staff will explore a neighborhood “TDM wallet”—a way for park‑revenue or permit revenue to support local transit or bikeshare subsidies.

Board members pressed staff on details staff said they are still developing, including thresholds that define each TDM tier, how vehicle trip targets will be calculated, and how financial guarantees would be sized and enforced. Hood emphasized the statutory constraint that staff must incorporate a recently passed state law that restricts local minimum parking requirements for multifamily housing near transit; staff described that law as a factor but did not identify it by bill number in the presentation.

The AMPS team noted policy tradeoffs. Hood said Boulder already requires among the highest bicycle‑parking counts in peer communities and that staff will focus next on design standards to better accommodate cargo bikes and e‑bikes. On electric‑vehicle charging, staff said those rules are handled in the city’s energy conservation code and did not need duplication in the zoning code.

Staff said the AMPS project is being advanced together—off‑street standards, a TDM ordinance and on‑street parking management—so the city can coordinate financial and operational changes. They plan additional community engagement and expect to present refined ordinance language and financial analyses to Council later in the process.

If Council advances the proposal, changes would apply when a property next seeks permits or approvals; no retroactive application was described.

— Ending: Staff requested TAB input to guide thresholds, exemptions and the TDM elements that will be required; the city will return with further detail as work continues.