Why It Matters
Parking requirements have become a significant barrier to housing development and affordability across the country. By eliminating or reducing these mandates, states and cities aim to lower construction costs and accelerate the delivery of new housing units to address a persistent shortage.
What Happened
Connecticut cities including Hartford have joined a national trend of removing parking minimums—the legal requirement that developers build a certain number of parking spaces per residential or commercial unit. Since 2017, at least 116 cities nationwide have eliminated parking minimums entirely, including Baltimore, Buffalo, Denver, Minneapolis, and San Francisco.
The shift reflects a growing recognition that parking requirements inflate development costs. A Columbus, Ohio apartment building with 100 one-bedroom units needed 100 parking spaces in 1954, but that requirement had grown to 150 spaces by 2022. A Columbus restaurant illustrates the volatility: the same 2,500-square-foot space was required to provide 9 parking spaces at one point and 34 spaces at another.
At the state level, the movement has accelerated. Since 2019, at least 14 states have enacted 34 laws reducing or eliminating parking minimums, signaling that legislatures increasingly view these requirements as obstacles to housing production rather than community assets.
By the Numbers
116 — Cities that have removed all parking minimums citywide since 2017
14 — States enacting parking minimum reform laws since 2019
34 — Laws enacted by those states reducing or eliminating parking requirements
150 — Parking spaces required for a 100-unit apartment building in Columbus by 2022, up from 100 in 1954
2019 — The year state-level parking reform laws began accelerating
Zoom Out
The parking minimum movement mirrors broader housing policy shifts across the country. States and cities facing affordability crises have begun questioning regulations that increase development costs without necessarily improving housing supply. Connecticut has also been grappling with homelessness and housing shortages, making parking reform part of a wider toolkit to expand the housing stock.
The origins of parking minimums trace to Columbus in 1923, when the city enacted the first known off-street parking requirement. What began as a traffic management tool has evolved into a development constraint that some experts argue no longer serves its intended purpose in an era of housing scarcity.
What’s Next
Connecticut lawmakers and municipal officials will likely continue evaluating parking requirements as part of broader housing reform efforts. The success of cities that have already eliminated minimums may accelerate adoption in the state, particularly in regions where housing costs and availability remain pressing concerns.