The City of Atlanta Zoning Committee voted to ask the Department of City Planning to study removing parking minimums citywide and to consider embedding that change in the forthcoming Zoning 2 rewrite. Councilmember Jason Dozier introduced the resolution and moved its approval; Councilmember Carden Wyckoff seconded. The committee approved the measure after debate; the clerk recorded the vote as 4 yeas and 3 abstentions.

Dozier framed the resolution as a direction to staff, not immediate code change, saying the goal is to "posture our city for future growth" and to reduce regulatory barriers to development. He cited cost drivers for construction, telling the committee that "every parking space in a parking deck that's built as part of a development cost about $50,000," and argued those costs are ultimately borne by renters and tenants. Dozier also said "roughly 40% of the city currently does not have parking minimums," which he presented as precedent for scaling back requirements elsewhere.

Several council members said they support studying the change but raised neighborhood-specific concerns. Councilmember Norwood said she had "not studied this" and abstained, noting parts of her district have no transit stations and are largely stable single-family areas where removing parking minimums could cause on-street parking pressure. Councilmember Howard Shook said he would "need some time to pray over this" and to study it further, citing 24 years of experience representing single-family neighborhoods. Councilmember Marcy Collier Overstreet said she supported examining the issue but found removing all parking minimums "hard to digest" and abstained. Councilmember Dustin Hillis asked for clarity on how the change would address businesses with liquor licenses and other uses that draw car trips, and referred to prior recommendations from ATAG.

Dozier responded that the resolution asks DCP to research how to incorporate the vision into Zoning 2 and to build carve-outs and tools into the eventual ordinance where needed. "This is saying that we're gonna remove the city from that equation so that we make it if a developer decides to build in a community that in right size," he said, adding that the intent is to allow flexible, market-driven decisions rather than a one-size-fits-all rule.

Votes at a glance (recorded in the committee minutes)
- Agenda adopted: motion by Chair Matt Westmoreland; second by Councilmember Dustin Hillis; recorded as 6 yays, 0 nays.
- Minutes approved: motion by Chair Westmoreland; second by Hillis; recorded in transcript as "6 ayes and ayes".
- Referral of items 11–16 to ZRB: motion referred; recorded as 7 ayes, 0 nays.
- Resolution (Item 17, 25R4136) requesting DCP study parking minimums: moved by Jason Dozier, seconded by Carden Wyckoff; recorded as 4 yeas, 3 abstentions.
- Item 21 (rezoning at 696 Highland Ave): approved 7 yays, 0 nays.
- Item 25 (Northeast Atlanta quality-of-life overlay): clerk's recorded vote reads "3 ayes, 1 aye, 3 abstentions" and the chair announced "Motion carries"; the transcript is internally inconsistent on the tally.

What the committee did and did not do
The committee approved a study request directing DCP to examine removing parking minimums and how that change might be implemented in Zoning 2; it did not adopt a zoning code change that night. The resolution instructs staff to analyze options and potential carve-outs, rather than immediately changing the code.

Next steps
The resolution asks the Department of City Planning to study the issue and to incorporate findings into future Zoning 2 draft language. The committee did not set a timeline for the study during this meeting.