skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Tuesday, December 24, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Bill Clinton is hospitalized for observation and testing after developing a fever; Biden commutes most federal death sentences before Trump takes office; Proposed post office 'slowdown' threatens rural Americans; Report: Tax credits shrink poverty for NM kids, families; Tiny plastic pieces enter the body in ways you'd never think of.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Biden commutes the sentences of most federal death row inmates, the House Ethics Committee says former Rep. Gaetz may have committed statutory rape, and the national archivist won't certify the ERA without congressional approval.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Rural folks could soon be shut out of loans for natural disasters if Project 2025 has its way, Taos, New Mexico weighs options for its housing shortage, and the top states providing America's Christmas trees revealed.

Following OR, More States Consider Ending Parking Mandates

play audio
Play

Tuesday, July 25, 2023   

Parking lots dominate the landscapes in many cities, but state lawmakers across the country are looking to reduce the number of unused parking spaces. More than a dozen states that considered ending or reducing parking mandates in 2023 legislative sessions, following Oregon's lead. Nearly every city in the U.S. requires a certain number of parking spaces be built for each new business and housing complex.

Michael Andersen, a senior researcher with Sightline Institute, a Northwest think tank focused on sustainability, said policymakers are reconsidering past efforts to overbuild parking lots.

"People are saying, 'Wait a minute, wait a minute, there are a bunch of unintended consequences here," he explained. "There are a bunch of longer-term side effects of building our cities with these expanses of parking lots everywhere. Let's let cities evolve as they will.'"

Andersen added creating too many lots has environmental, social and economic costs. The boom in legislation, from Vermont to Oklahoma, addressing this issue comes after Oregon approved a law last year reducing parking mandates. In the state's eight largest metro areas, mandates are eliminated completely in certain situations, such as within a half-mile of frequent public transit.

Andersen said this issue is an extension of the larger housing affordability problem gripping cities both big and small and added the upsurge in telecommuting that accompanied the pandemic prompted a large migration of people from big to small.

"These housing shortages have rapidly become more bipartisan because they're manifesting in new areas, and I think people are just looking for ways to cut the cost of housing," he said.

California also eliminated or reduced parking mandates last year.

Disclosure: Sightline Institute contributes to our fund for reporting on Climate Change/Air Quality, Environment, Housing/Homelessness, Urban Planning/Transportation. If you would like to help support news in the public interest, click here.


get more stories like this via email
more stories
Juana Valle's well is one of 20 sites tested in California's San Joaquin Valley and Central Coast regions in the first round of preliminary sampling by University of California-Berkeley researchers and the Community Water Center. The results showed 96 parts per trillion of total PFAS in her water, including 32 parts per trillion of PFOS - both considered potentially hazardous amounts. (Hannah Norman/KFF Health News)

Environment

play sound

By Hannah Norman for KFF Health News.Broadcast version by Suzanne Potter for California News Service reporting for the KFF Health News-Public News Ser…


Environment

play sound

Animal rights organizers are regrouping after mixed results at the ballot box in November. A measure targeting factory farms passed in Berkeley but …

Environment

play sound

Farmers in Nebraska and across the nation might not be in panic mode anymore thanks to another extension of the Farm Bill but they still want Congress…


Immigration law experts say applying for asylum status can be very lengthy, and that programs such as Temporary Protected Status can fill the void for people fleeing violence elsewhere in the world. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

With 2025 almost here, organizations assisting Minnesota's Latino populations say they're laser focused on a couple of areas - mental health-care …

Social Issues

play sound

A new report found Connecticut's fiscal controls on the state budget restrict long-term growth. The controls were introduced during the 2018 budget …

As of August, enrollment in the Kentucky Community and Technical College System had reached 66,114 students, representing an increase of 8.4%, according to state data. (Adobe Stock/AI generated image)

Social Issues

play sound

Nearly a dozen changes could be made to the Kentucky Community and Technical College system, under Senate Joint Resolution 179, passed by lawmakers …

Social Issues

play sound

By Jessica Scott-Reid for Sentient.Broadcast version by Nadia Ramlagan for Arkansas News Service reporting for the Sentient-Public News Service Collab…

play sound

By Julieta Cardenas for Sentient.Broadcast version by Freda Ross for Texas News Service reporting for the Sentient-Public News Service Collaboration …

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021