We recently heard from a Buckman resident about an online survey that was put together by a group of community members who are concerned about the recent spate of new apartment building developments without off-street parking. Read on for details:
Neighborhood Apartment Parking Survey
Sponsored by Citywide Land Use GroupDear Neighbors and Community Leaders:
Our Portland community is experiencing unprecedented growth in the development of apartment buildings that include little or no off-street parking. Although a number of these types of older apartments remain along the former trolley lines, the approval of 28 new apartment buildings over the past 18 months has alarmed most of us.
Due to the recent community outcry regarding the approval of so many apartment buildings with no parking, the City’s Bureau of Planning and Sustainability (BPS) is conducting a study of residents and neighbors of eight of these older buildings. As a group of volunteers that make up the Citywide Land Use Group, we felt it was important to conduct our own, complementary survey. This survey is the result of our Apartment Parking Task Force and Editing Team’s work on the no-parking issue over the past four months. It is our attempt to clarify your concerns and needs. We want to give neighborhoods the opportunity to provide constructive criticism to the City on this issue.
Click here to start filling out the questionnaire
In our view, the City, Metro, and the State are each dealing with competing goals. These include reducing air pollution, traffic congestion, and storm water run-off, while at the same time retaining and enhancing neighborhood livability, high density residential, affordable housing, living-wage jobs and vibrant local businesses. The recent development of apartments with little or no off street parking is a direct result of these policies.
Portland is not alone in dealing with reduced parking in new apartment developments. Other cities we reviewed included Seattle, San Francisco, and Denver.
Our contention is that the city needs to begin a dialogue with the neighborhood associations and business communities to help understand the impact of these goals and policies on our daily lives. We offer that Portland contains the most creative and enthusiastic community that could be brought to the table for this discussion. Together, it is likely we will come up with a range of ideas and equitable solutions.
The results of this Apartment Parking Neighborhood Survey as well as the BPS parking study will both be presented to the Portland Planning and Sustainability Commission at their November 13th Forum. This is but the first step in helping broker a dialogue between the City of Portland and its concerned neighborhoods on this issue.
The survey questionnaire should take you about 10 to 15 minutes to complete.
Buckman Voice 
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