Summary:
- Old parking mandates and rigid runoff standards make it harder and more expensive to redevelop vacant sites, add housing, strengthen downtowns, and reduce flood damage as North Carolina rapidly changes.
- The bill removes statewide parking minimums and updates how redevelopment handles stormwater, cutting unnecessary costs, lowering flood risk, and letting local needs and market demand guide how land is used.
- Communities gain flexibility, affordability improves, flooding and pollution are reduced, and businesses can invest without being forced to overbuild parking that adds little value and real harm.
North Carolina is growing, redeveloping, and changing faster than many of our laws were designed to handle. Across the state, communities are trying to revitalize downtowns, redevelop long-vacant properties, expand housing options, and reduce flood damage. Too often, outdated parking rules and limits on runoff management make those goals harder and more expensive to achieve.
House Bill 369, the Parking Lot Reform & Modernization Act, offers a commonsense solution. The bill modernizes two policies that quietly but powerfully shape development across North Carolina: mandatory off-street parking minimums and how runoff and flood risk are addressed during redevelopment. Together, these reforms reduce unnecessary costs, lower flood risk, and give communities more flexibility to grow in ways that actually reflect local needs and market realities.
The Hidden Costs of Mandatory Parking
Parking minimums are local ordinances that require developers to build a fixed number of off-street parking spaces based on a formula, such as one space per set amount of square footage. These rules date back to the 1950s, when car ownership was rising rapidly and cities attempted to prevent congestion by mandating abundant parking.
Today, many of these requirements are outdated, subjective, and disconnected from how people actually use space. Parking minimums often force developers to build far more parking than they need, regardless of location, transit access, or consumer behavior. That excess parking does not come free.
A single surface parking space costs between $5,000-$10,000 to construct (depending on the value of land), while structured parking can cost $25,000-$50,000 per space. When incorporated into housing projects, costs like these are passed on to renters, homeowners, and customers through higher rents and sale prices. For small businesses and housing developers, parking mandates can be the difference between a project moving forward or never getting built at all.
The scale of the issue is already visible in North Carolina’s cities. Roughly 26 percent of Uptown Charlotte, 28 percent of downtown Raleigh, and 31 percent of Greensboro’s central city consist of off-street parking. At major retail sites, parking can take up nearly half the land area, leaving less room for productive uses and contributing nothing to local tax bases or community life.
HB 369 Lets the Market, Not Mandates, Decide
HB 369 would eliminate local government-mandated off-street parking minimums statewide. It would not ban parking itself, nor prevent businesses from providing it if they so choose. Instead, it allows developers and business owners to decide for themselves how much parking makes sense for their customers, location, and budget.
This approach has already worked in North Carolina. Raleigh, Durham County, Cramerton, and Gastonia have all eliminated parking minimums in recent years. Across the country, more than 50 cities and towns have done the same, including Birmingham, Alabama and Gainesville, Florida. In these places, development did not grind to a halt, and street parking did not collapse into chaos. Developers continued to build parking when it was needed – just not more than their markets demanded.
Studies from cities like Seattle and Buffalo show that even after parking minimums were removed, most new developments still included on-site parking. The difference is that they built fewer unused spaces, saving hundreds of millions of dollars and freeing up land for housing, businesses, and green space.
Parking reform is fundamentally a deregulatory move. It removes a one-size-fits-all mandate and replaces it with flexibility, efficiency, and local decision-making.
Parking, Runoff, and Flood Risk Are Directly Connected
Oversized parking lots do more than drive up costs. They significantly worsen flooding and water pollution. Parking lots are impervious surfaces, meaning rainwater runs off instead of soaking into the ground. That runoff flows quickly into streams and rivers, carrying oil, heavy metals, trash, fertilizers, and other pollutants.
Runoff is one of the leading sources of water pollution in North Carolina. One inch of rain falling on a single acre of impervious surface generates 27,000 gallons of runoff. The same rainfall on forested land generates virtually none. As communities pave more land than necessary, flood risk increases for downstream neighborhoods and businesses.
HB 369 takes a measured step toward fixing this problem by giving guidance to certain local governments on how runoff and flood risk can be addressed during redevelopment. This helps protect nearby homes and businesses, reduces strain on local infrastructure, and lowers long-term public costs related to flood damage and water treatment.
Benefits That Reach Across the State
The impacts of HB 369 extend well beyond developers and planners.
- Businesses face lower upfront costs and fewer regulatory barriers.
- Renters and homebuyers benefit when housing costs are not inflated by unnecessary parking construction.
- Communities experience less flooding, more walkable development, and stronger downtowns.
- Farmers and rural residents benefit from cleaner water used for irrigation and consumption.
- Homeowners and insurers benefit from reduced flood risk, which helps stabilize insurance markets.
Concerns about parking shortages are understandable, but evidence consistently shows that eliminating parking minimums does not eliminate parking. It simply stops forcing communities to overbuild asphalt that harms budgets, neighborhoods, and waterways.
A Clear Choice for Smarter Growth
HB 369 reflects a simple idea: North Carolina’s development rules should match today’s realities, not assumptions from 70 years ago. By eliminating mandatory parking minimums and restoring flexibility to manage runoff during redevelopment, the Parking Lot Reform & Modernization Act supports economic growth, affordability, and environmental protection at the same time.
As flooding worsens, housing costs rise, and communities look for ways to revitalize existing spaces, HB 369 offers a practical and forward-looking path. It is a smart update that helps North Carolina grow stronger without paving over its future.
