EMERYVILLE — In an effort to encourage people to ditch their cars, Emeryville may scrap a long-standing requirement that developers provide ample off-street parking spaces for their buildings — if any at all.

At its meeting Tuesday, the Emeryville City Council called for an ordinance by the end of November that would do away with minimum parking mandates for all new buildings throughout the city.

Nick Josefowitz, director of Policy for Bay Area urban planning think tank SPUR, said in an interview Thursday such an ordinance would put Emeryville at the forefront of a worldwide movement to use urban land more efficiently, in part by preventing it from being carved up into parking lots.

The ordinance would align Emeryville with San Francisco and Minneapolis, which eliminated their minimum parking requirements citywide last year. Although it didn’t go that far, Oakland in 2015 stopped requiring parking for new buildings downtown and near BART stations.

Some urban planning experts view parking requirements as outdated, a remnant from mid-20th century mindset that population increases beget more cars, which must be planned for, according to the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy. That resulted in more parking spaces being built than what’s actually needed in areas served by public transit, and those spots occupy valuable land that could be used to build more housing.

Emeryville Councilman John Bauters, who spearheaded the effort, said at Tuesday’s meeting that tossing out parking minimums is “long overdue.” Though dramatic, he said it’s an important step toward making the city safer and more environmentally friendly.

“We don’t need to build more parking, we need to build safer streets, more housing and open space to make our community more livable,” Bauters said.

Because off-street parking adds an extra $50,000 to $80,000 per space to construction project costs, developers likely would avoid building it if they could, Josefowitz said, adding that the savings could encourage them to reduce rents or add more amenities. And it could make affordable housing projects more feasible, he said.

“In the Bay Area and all around the country, especially in cities where it’s expensive to live, governments are realizing they don’t want to force housing prices up by requiring people to build parking that they don’t need,” Josefowitz said.

Having fewer available spaces also will deter residents from using cars to get around, he said.

“For instance, It will just sort of call to question whether families need to buy a second car, or whether it makes sense to spend that money on transit passes or buying bikes for the family,” Josefowitz said.

Emeryville currently requires developers to include the equivalent of at least 67 parking spaces per 100 housing units, or .67 parking spaces per 1,000 square feet of commercial space.

Under the proposed ordinance, developers still could include off-street parking if they choose to.

For that reason, the council agreed to retain a city limit on the maximum number of parking spaces developers could provide at about 110 spaces per 100 units, or 1.10 spaces per 1,000 square feet of commercial space.

The city’s Planning Commission weighed in on the proposal in July, and although all six members supported reducing the minimum parking requirement, only two favored eliminating it altogether. Commissioners pointed out California’s building code requires a percentage of parking spots be available for disabled parking and electric vehicle charging stations.

In response, Mayor Ally Medina suggested Tuesday that the proposed ordinance require developers to include as many off-street spaces for disabled parking and electric vehicles as currently mandated.

Having fewer parking spots will pressure the city to invest more in public transportation, Bauters said. If the ordinance is approved, the city next will consider expanding bike-share programs and adding more stops to its free shuttle service, Emery Go-Round.