One of the features of Bill 7 is there’s no requirement for on-site parking. It’s expensive to build a parking garage large enough to provide space for one or two cars for each apartment so, to keep development costs lower, Bill 7 does not require parking.
Parking Stalls in Honolulu
In the current market, does it make sense to build an apartment building with no parking spaces? In many neighborhoods, on-street parking is already tight. Will buildings that don’t offer parking be harder to rent? Will they have higher vacancy rates? Will the rents be lower than rents in similar buildings that do have tenant parking? How much does parking impact the profitability of a project?
Parking Options
The least expensive parking solution is to use the ground level of the building for parking by raising the first level of apartments to the second floor. Bill 7 allows ground floor parking spaces to encroach into the side and rear yards of the building, but despite that allowance, in most cases one level of parking will provide a parking space for just about half of the proposed units in a typical Bill 7 project. If the building has fewer than one parking space for each apartment, tenants who want a parking space would compete to rent the available spaces and some tenants would be unable to rent a parking space.
Mechanical parking systems can provide an alternative. These systems “stack” vehicles so that twice as many cars can park in the same ground floor parking area. These systems have proven reliable and efficient in urban markets around the world, and the monthly rent tenants pay for a parking space would cover the increased cost of purchasing and installing the system. Cars parked in mechanical parking systems also may be more secure since access to the cars is limited to tenants.
Transportation planners in Honolulu believe residents’ transportation habits already are changing and a growing number of people will choose to ride a bike, use a car sharing service (Servco), an on-call driver service (Lyft, Uber) and/or mass transit instead of owning a car. In the meantime, what is the best parking configuration for a Bill 7 property? The best solution depends on the size and shape of the property, the distance between the property and a rail station or bus line and the unique characteristics of the community.
What is a parking space worth? Let us help you decide.