OAKLAND — The Oakland City Council on Tuesday will consider reducing parking requirements for new residential and commercial developments, a move that housing and environmental advocates say could both generate more affordable housing and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

In a letter to Gov. Jerry Brown last year encouraging him to sign AB 744, which reduced parking requirements for affordable housing developments, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf said the reductions in parking requirements are “essential to solving our (housing) crisis.”

“When minimum parking requirements do not reflect the actual needs of the tenants — which is especially true near transit, and among low vehicle-ownership populations — this puts a major unnecessary burden on the developer, raises the cost of housing, reduces the potential number of housing units on the parcel and permanently alters our cities in a way that encourages driving and increases climate impacts,” she said.

The changes are the first update to the city’s parking codes since 1965. Most residential developments, whether they are downtown or elsewhere in the city, generally require one parking space for every apartment or unit of housing. The new regulations would reduce that by 25 percent, and in some cases, eliminate the minimum requirement altogether.

Parking for offices or retail buildings in downtown Oakland and in areas near a BART station would be not be required under the new rules, and parking requirements would be reduced to one parking space for every 600 to 1,000 square feet of commercial space in other parts of the city.

Developers would be required under the new rules to charge tenants separately for parking to reflect the actual cost of the space, rather than include it with the rent. It also requires developers to provide a parking space for car sharing in any residential developments larger than 50 units, and to either pay for half of a monthly AC Transit bus pass for tenants or provide an AC Transit EasyPass, a type of pass specifically geared to employers, public institutions and large residential developments.