The city of Burlington is considering revising its minimum parking requirements for new buildings.

Minimum parking requirements are laws that mandate new businesses and residences provide a fixed number of off-street parking spaces.

City Planning Director David White says parking minimums have been in place in Burlington since the 1980s and now the city is pushing to modify its current regulations.

On Wednesday night, the planning commission discussed a proposed amendment to revise parking requirements for developments in downtown, neighborhood activity centers, neighborhood mixed-use districts, affordable housing and reuse of historic buildings. The amendment also seeks to update dimensional requirements for parking.

One concern is the minimum parking requirement puts a financial burden on people wanting to build in Burlington. According to White, there are hundreds of unused parking spaces around town because business owners and landlords can’t keep up with or afford the minimum requirement.

White believes each business should have the freedom to decide how many parking spaces they want or need.

“Parking is a huge expense. It's very expensive to build. It's very expensive to maintain and if you're not going to be able to use it, you don’t need it, why should we be requiring it?" White said. “For example, we have thousands of empty parking spaces that sit there every day, all day long that are better used by somebody rather than because the zoning ordinance said you have to have them.”

Another concern is that minimum parking requirements are not aligned with the city’s climate goals. Some people worry that requiring business and residences to obtain a certain number of parking spaces forces people to drive, which means more emissions are being released into the air.

“If we keep saying you have to have parking spots, people are going to keep driving. But if you start to take some of those away, people get creative,” said Amy Magyar of Burlington. “So, I think to reduce the minimum or just getting rid of it -- I actually think we should expand getting rid of minimum parking requirements in a much bigger part of Burlington. But I know right now what they're doing is taking the first step."

The planning commission decided to table the conversation Wednesday night after an hour-and-a-half discussion. They will pick it back up next Tuesday.

White says there will be a public hearing on the matter eventually. A date has not yet been set.