People Over Parking for North Carolina

March 27, 2025

Help us to send a message to the North Carolina General Assembly: housing for people is more important than empty space reserved for cars!

A photo of an apartment building. — Costly parking mandates can be a barrier to infill housing like this small apartment building. Image source: Asheville Missing Middle Housing Study, page 30.

In early March, a bill was introduced in the North Carolina house to eliminate costly parking mandates statewide.

Most cities in North Carolina—and across the country—have parking mandates that date from the mid-twentieth century. Parking mandates are municipal rules that require that all buildings have a minimum number of parking spaces next to them, whether or not the homes, businesses, or workplaces in those buildings really need all that parking or not.

Parking mandates make housing more expensive. They make cities sprawl. And they make public transit less viable, by requiring buildings to be more spread out. In one sense, they are a subsidy to the automobile industry.

A diagram showing a lot with four parking spaces vs. one with eight parking spaces. The latter is by necessity a bigger lot. — According to Asheville’s Missing Middle Housing Study, “parking has a significant impact” on the city’s potential for infill housing development. This diagram shows how a fourplex becomes more challenging to build on a smaller lot when two parking spaces are mandated per home. Image source: Asheville Missing Middle Housing Study, p.55.

This bill, which was drafted in partnership with Catawba Riverkeeper, has the support of environmentalists and pro-housing advocates. And it’s already lined up sponsors on both sides of the aisle.

Can you use the form below to write a letter to your state representatives and the governor, encouraging them to support this bill?

(Once you enter your information, you will be able to customize the letter.)

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