Surface parking has become one of the downtown's most predominant land uses. And as redevelopment continues in the Cascade District and along Plymouth Avenue, the demand for new parking will almost certainly grow.

However, the form that parking takes is still up in the air. Rochester doesn’t usually see the types of massive residential developments that warrant their own parking decks. A stagnant economy and little regional population growth mean that Rochester developers are working with much thinner profit margins than developers in the red hot coastal markets. It follows that much of the recent development in the downtown area has involved the repurposing of underutilized buildings and reliance on the existing parking supply. Without the rents needed to justify new structured parking, infill development will struggle to remain viable as the value of parking increases.

This is where the city finds itself in a unique situation. The immense task of engineering and funding an underground structure capable of car storage is largely complete. The tunnel has even been maintained to some degree of structural integrity. With the barrier to entry substantially lowered, Rochester is in a prime position to provide parking in a way that allows infill development to heal the gaping wounds in the urban fabric.

Typically, parking requirements and market pressure obligate developers to dedicate large amounts of land and resources to parking. These hard costs increase uncertainty and push up the minimum rent required for feasibility. In soft markets like Rochester, this could be a death knell for the kinds of incremental infill projects key to the city’s ongoing recovery. But now that the city has offered a structurally-sound 100-foot wide tunnel, the parking equation begins to look much different. With the prospect of an underground parking facility, the expanses of asphalt scarring entire blocks of downtown begin looking a lot less valuable as car storage. As the value of surface parking decreases, so does the barrier of entry for small developers looking to invest in downtown.

In this case, the city is offering a unique opportunity where the infrastructure is largely already in place for a new parking facility that could serve a significant portion of downtown. From a small developer’s perspective, contracting with an off-site parking operator may be a far more valuable proposition than sacrificing valuable leasable space on her parcel. Thankfully, the city of Rochester has taken the crucial step of eliminating downtown parking requirements which would allow such incremental development to flourish.

Neighborhoods thrive when development can proceed without being forced to provide on-site parking. When designed properly, underground parking is far less disruptive to the urban fabric than a traditional parking deck or surface lot.

Surface lots and parking decks are tremendously damaging to the ability of an urban space to function in two ways. For one, they are simply unsightly. Charming places are quickly ruined by faceless concrete structures and expanses of asphalt.

Second, and more importantly, parking decks and surface lots destroy the continuous street-level activation which is so critical to the success of the urban places. Urban neighborhoods thrive when the streets contain an unbroken sequence of destinations, including storefronts, front porches, building entrances, and public spaces. The most successful and desirable places (think Greenwich Village, Princeton, or even Park Avenue in Rochester itself) thrive on this recipe of dense, human-scaled development. Underground parking with discrete access allows for such places to develop and function in a way that surface lots and parking decks often inhibit.

The addition of underground parking could intensify the pressure for the development of the surrounding surface lots scarring the urban fabric. This process has already begun, with the development of townhouses and a mixed-use building along Plymouth Avenue. The city has already taken the essential steps of eliminating all parking requirements in the downtown and permitting virtually all uses by-right in the downtown zoning districts. With parking available underground, local developers would have even more incentive to continue the trend of infill development without the worry or cost of parking availability. And the quality of the urban fabric could heal in the process.

All opinions presented in this article are those of the author alone.

Top photo credit: Mike Wilson via Unsplash.