April 16, 2025 | Matt Frommer, Transportation & Land Use Policy Manager
Local governments often require new buildings to include a certain amount of off-street car parking, typically expressed as a minimum number of parking spaces per home or per square foot of office, retail, or other space. The minimums are designed to exceed demand, so there are always empty spaces. Costly and excessive parking mandates are preventing Colorado from achieving its housing, climate, and economic goals by driving up the cost of housing, wasting space, harming local businesses, and reinforcing car dependence.
Due to a new state law (HB24-1304) taking effect on June 30, 2025, certain local governments in Colorado will no longer be able to enforce minimum parking mandates for certain types of development near transit. Cities can go above and beyond the state law to eliminate parking minimums city-wide — saving money, enabling more housing to be built, unlocking new opportunities for local businesses, improving walkability, and preventing environmental degradation.
To be clear, removing parking mandates won’t stop developers from building new parking. People are still free to build as much parking as they want, and parking will still be built — but without the one-size-fits-all mandates. We support allowing for an appropriate amount of parking to match specific project needs and better align parking policy with Colorado’s housing and transportation goals.
The Southwest Energy Efficiency Project has published a set of resources to explain the benefits of parking reform, highlight the positive results from cities that have eliminated parking mandates, answer frequently asked questions and concerns, and offer recommendations for cities to right-size parking and better manage the oversupply of existing spaces.
