Build Maine/GrowSmart Maine Joint Testimony
Testimony of Build Maine in support of LD 427, An Act to Prohibit Mandatory Parking Space Minimums in State and Municipal Codes
Dear Senator Curry, Representative Gere, and Members of the Joint Select Committee on Housing,
My name is Kara, and I am the Chair of Build Maine. We are a statewide non-partisan organization working to align fiscal, economic, environmental, and quality of life goals within our state through pragmatic and common-sense solutions to building our rural and urban communities.
We partner with Grow Smart Maine to co-host a transparent crowd-sourcing of policy proposals that has drawn together over a hundred people from across Maine and beyond. Policy Action 2025 follows Policy Action 2023 from the 131st Legislature. Each session we strive to meet this goal, “to address barriers to and create incentives for equitable, sustainable growth and development that strengthens downtowns and villages of all sizes while pulling development pressure away from productive and open natural areas.”
This testimony represents the position of GrowSmart and Build Maine.
We support LD 427, which proposes to prohibit the State or a municipality from imposing minimum parking requirements for new development, land use, or occupancy of land or a building. Municipalities could continue to regulate the location of parking on a lot, as well as impacts of a project on the surrounding neighborhood to minimize and mitigate adverse parking impacts on public rights-of-way.
Minimum parking requirements inflate the cost of building new housing and reduce the number of units that can be built, making it impossible to get projects off the ground. Parking requirements are arbitrary and oftentimes mandate a higher than necessary number of parking spaces, consuming land that could otherwise be used for housing, and preventing compact, mixed-use infill development in villages and downtowns. Parking minimums also cost the public in the form of extra infrastructure and a loss of taxable value. Removing parking mandates will allow the private market to make better decisions about how best to use land, and save acres of underutilized land in central locations close to jobs and services.
Maine has a housing crisis, and eliminating minimum parking requirements will enable more housing production in existing employment centers, growing the workforce, while reducing vehicle miles traveled (VMT).
Build Maine and GrowSmart Maine are willing to assist the committee in any way that is helpful.
Sincerely,
Kara Wilbur, Chair
Build Maine
Nancy Smith, CEO
GrowSmart Maine