Driving around the City of Philadelphia, it is quite often that I see, amongst a block full of single-family row homes,in a densely populated walkable neighborhood, a lone parking space. Seemingly out of place, this advantage possessed only by the luckiest of residents, used to baffle me.  How did they get it?  What sorcery!  However now that I have been a practicing zoning attorney in the City for over 15 years, I know now it’s nothing magical, it’s just zoning!  

If you have been involved in the development space in Philly for any appreciable amount of time, as a lawyer or architect or builder,  you’ve certainly run into a discussion about parking.  Everybody wants to have it at their own home, nobody wants their neighbors to have it.  Many RCO (registered community organizations, see our video about them here)

in one breath rage against developments without parking, and in the next chide you for trying to include it.  Residents want their existing parking secured – and want that invaluable curb cut.  But they also want to protect the character of the neighborhood at all costs, and part of that warm feeling of walk ability precludes things like garages on row homes, and the accompanying curb cuts.

This is one of the zoning issues in Philadelphia that generates the most frustrations amongst our city.  And this anger reaches a displeased resident’s City Councilperson pretty quickly.  Over the course of the last ten years there have been some small parking legislation changes.  This author would argue that it isn’t the lack of existing parking rules that causes issues, but the lack of enforcement.  Every so often you see an article like this https://whyy.org/articles/tickets-fines-illegally-parked-cars-philadelphia-parking-authority/ , that gives some hope that the city is going to smarten up and start protecting things like handicap curb access and bike lanes.  

Those laws deal with the regulation of existing parking spaces.  I’d like to talk now about what developers have to think about when they are considering building, in terms of required and desired parking.

Developers are required to create a set number of parking spaces for every certain number of units – or every certain amount of area – in a development.  What those requirements are depend on the zoning designation of the property they are developing, in combination with the new use of the property.  

The parking space zoning rules and requirements for commercial districts are laid out in this chart.

Minimum Required Parking Spaces (spaces per unit)

The parking space zoning rules and requirements for residential districts are laid out in this chart.

Minimum Required Parking Spaces (spaces per unit)

And finally, the parking space zoning rules and requirements for industrial districts are laid out in this chart.

Minimum Required Parking Spaces (spaces per unit)

Most notably, rowhomes – for residential use usually classified as RSA-5 (single family row homes) and RM-1 (multi-family row homes), and for commercial use classified as CMX 1, 2, and 2.5, do not require parking spaces at all.  This is because these zoning designations are meant to protect the character of the city as being dense and walkable. 

The space requirements for most other designations is also pretty “easy” to comply with: just one space per unit for RSD homes, for example; which are more or less suburban houses.  Higher level commercial and industrial districts have variable requirements depending on what the use of the building is (multifamily with commercial on ground floor, large hotel vs. hospital vs. refinery vs. whatever else you can imagine). Still, I’d argue it’s not too strict a code, as far as parking goes, and the zoning board itself is oftentimes understanding when a developer cannot meet those requirements for some reason (the lot is too narrow to park cars, for example).

So while there ARE zoning rules and regulations that are written down and must be followed, they are not always straightforward.  If you reference the charts I linked above, you can see that there many different calculations that exist, not only for the required number of parking spaces, but also for the regulations around the location and size of the parking spaces.  For example, did you know that for a proposed curb cut, you have to be able to prove to the Philadelphia Streets Department that an average car has adequate enough turning radius to exit the street into the spot?  There are further regulations surrounding minimum width and depth of a parking space, what building materials have to be used in building a parking space, and so on.

In addition to everything mentioned above, when you are requesting a parking space or spaces, there are two different types of parking spaces: accessory and non-accessory.  Non-Accessory parking simply means a property on which you park cars, and those cars are not on that property to visit any part of that property.  The most obvious example is a parking garage.  The zoning code further distinguishes between a parking garage (structured parking) and a parking lot (surface parking).  Again, every district is different.  Parking garages are allowed, without a variance, in CMX-3 districts.  Parking lots require a special exception.  In all other CMX districts, non-accessory parking is either forbidden or requires a special exception.

Parking for your business or residence or residential complex or industrial warehouse is called accessory parking.  Parking rules in Philadelphia don’t allow every zoning category to be used for non-accessory parking.  Non-accessory parking is allowed in all the industrial zoning categories, and allowed with a special exception in industrial mixed-use zoning categories.

To reiterate.  There are a lot of parking rules in Philadelphia.  Parking is and will continue to be one of the most contentious arenas in Philly’s zoning and development.  Cities all over the world have to contend with a society that owns far more cars than there are spots to park them.  

We are happy to help educate and navigate your team when dealing with parking regulations.  If you’re a developer, or you’re just looking to build or renovate your own home in the city, be aware: the parking rules in Philadelphia can change quickly.  Reach out to us at Info@Philadelphiazoning.com if you need help.