Originally Posted by
wahoonc
I wonder too. The big town just south of me built a new fancy pants $6.1 million 284 space parking garage...downtown. The mall (where all the big downtown stores relocated to some 37 years ago) has acres and acres of "free" parking. To add insult to injury due to some political shenanigans they paid farm rate taxes on it for the first 25 years.
Until zoning boards put a stop to nonstop uncontrolled sprawl it is going to continue.
Aaron
Retailers want more rather than less because they fear customers will go elsewhere if coming to the retailer is inconvenient. Walgreens drug store for example will not locate in most places unless they can build their 14,000 square foot building and have parking to their specs - which is typically used at about a 20% occupancy rate.
Politicos are also fearful of killing business with too little parking. However, they don't seem to understand that all that on-street parking is paid for (therefore subsidized) by the public who may not ever use it - ever.