photo by: Austin Hornbostel/Journal-World

Members of the Land Development Code Steering Committee discuss a draft version of one portion of the revised code during a meeting on Thursday, Oct. 19, 2023.

As a steering committee works to develop new rules for how Lawrence should grow, one of the big questions the group has for the public is how much parking space new developments should have to provide.

More specifically, the Land Development Code Steering Committee decided at its meeting on Thursday that it wants to see what members of the public think about eliminating minimum and maximum parking requirements for new residential development entirely, and mandating only a maximum amount of parking space for commercial and industrial development.

The idea gained traction as board members thought about the massive parking lots often built alongside big-box retail stores, with some spaces that may never be used. Imposing only maximum parking requirements for that type of development could be a way to encourage additional development, some board members said.

“I guess I would rather be a little provocative and at least see what people would say about that,” Lawrence City Commissioner Brad Finkeldei, the chair of the steering committee, said Thursday.

The steering committee is in the middle of a multi-year process of revising the Land Development Code, which is the city’s guide for growth and changes that could affect the aesthetics and functions of existing neighborhoods and commercial areas, for the first time since 2006. Right now, the group is examining revisions to the second of three sections of a draft version of the new code, concerning development standards. This was the group’s latest meeting since it hosted a series of community meetings to gather input on the first revised section of the code related to zoning districts and uses.

The potential parking requirements change could be written with some exceptions, said Elizabeth Garvin, a consultant from the city-hired consulting firm Clarion Associates. Those might include continuing to have minimum requirements for areas without any on-street parking and sticking with current standards for redevelopment.

Going this route would be a departure from the norm for Lawrence, but the consulting team said there are communities across the country that have shifted to only codifying minimum parking requirements for residential uses and maximums for all uses. That’s a change nearby Overland Park is looking into, for example, and other variations have caught on in parts of the Pacific Northwest and Colorado.

Garvin said she couldn’t think of any communities the size of Lawrence that have eliminated parking minimums and maximums nearly across the board in this way, but that it could be worth gathering more opinions about the idea.

“If we zero it out, that will bring a lot of people into the project — I can assure you of that,” Garvin told the group. “… Parking will still get built, because houses won’t sell without parking and spaces won’t lease.”

Parking requirements were just one of the topics steering committee members discussed at Thursday’s meeting. They also learned that the latest revised section of the code also includes residential lot adjustments that Garvin said “allow for a variety of different housing types” since they could be housed in a number of different zoning districts. Garvin said there are either brand-new or updated adjustments for development types like cluster development, cottage courts — small housing developments, usually detached houses, arranged around a central garden or other common open space — and small lot development.

Thursday’s meeting was the group’s first opportunity to discuss the draft revision of the development standards section before it’s released to the public for review, but it won’t be the last. The steering committee will meet again Thursday, Nov. 9, and in early December.

In the meantime, community members interested in sharing feedback on this section of the Land Development Code will soon be able to access it — along with more information about the revision process — on the project’s website.