Parking Reforms

Page last updated on:

January 30, 2025

Interim Parking Reform Ordinance Approved January 13, 2025

On January 13, 2025, after a public hearing on the topic, Bellingham City Council approved an interim ordinance eliminating Bellingham’s minimum parking requirements – rules that define the number of parking spaces that must be developed in Bellingham.

This ordinance allows property owners and developers to right-size the amount of parking they provide based on anticipated demand, rather than City mandates. While the ordinance provides significantly more flexibility, considerations such as ADA requirements and safety will continue to be taken into account.

The ordinance is effective starting January 28, 2025. Because it is an interim measure, it will be in effect until January 2026, unless it is extended. Over the next year, we will evaluate the new regulations and prepare a final parking ordinance.

Why is the City making parking development fully flexible?

Parking requirements limit what can be done with land and have led to an overabundance of parking in areas of the city. At the same time, the need for additional housing and environmental and climate mitigation measures have increased. Parking requirements don’t reflect our current priorities – the last time Bellingham’s parking requirements were substantially updated was in the 1960s.

Supporting housing opportunities

Parking takes up our limited buildable land that could be used for housing. Parking mandates limit the number of housing units that can be built on a site because, in order to develop a housing unit, a certain number of parking spaces must be created to support that unit. If required parking can’t be built, then the housing unit can’t be built.

According to research published in November 2024,, making parking fully flexible – in other words, doing away with minimum parking requirements – can help spur more housing availability.

Parking requirements often limit the number of units that can be built due to limited space for parking on a site. The cost of constructing the parking can also make the project unfeasible.
Each parking space generally costs more than $20,000 in Bellingham and can be upwards of $60,000 per space for structured parking. Homeowners and renters ultimately end up covering these costs through increased purchase prices or monthly rent.
By increasing housing supply, removing parking minimums may also help stabilize housing costs.
This change has the potential to encourage development. For instance, in 2023, the City Council agreed to eliminate parking requirements in Old Town. That change was one of several elements that supported renewed development interest in an area that went underdeveloped for decades. There are now plans to construct at least 500 new residential units in this area over the coming years.
By not requiring every structure have a certain minimum number of parking spaces, people can make site specific decisions that allow them to use land more efficiently, and not build unused parking.

Supporting the environment and climate mitigation

Parking minimum requirements are at odds with Bellingham’s climate goals. They increase urban sprawl, and they result in a greater amount of pavement or other impervious surfaces, which increases the heat island effect.

Removing parking minimums can increase urban density, and denser urban development supports greater preservation of forested lands, agricultural lands, urban trees and other critical areas by reducing the impacts of urban sprawl.
Removing parking minimums encourages use of alternative modes of transportation, which can help us meet our climate goals. The City’s 2018 Climate Action Plan calls for reducing vehicle trips by 27 percent by 2036 and identifies greater urban density as a requisite to support that goal.

Housing Executive Order Calls for Parking Reforms

Learn more about the order signed in November 2024 that called for expediting these actions.

Timeline and Actions to Date

On February 12, 2024, the Bellingham City Council requested that City staff provide information about other cities that have reformed their parking requirements, and potential options and implications for updating Bellingham’s requirements.
On May 20, 2024, City staff presented parking reform options to City Council during a work session. At the end of the discussion, City Council asked staff to provide additional information on two of the options presented. One option would eliminate parking minimum requirements citywide, while the other would only eliminate them in/near transit-oriented development and urban villages.
- You can view that City Council discussion here and reports and presented materials here.
On November 21, 2024, Bellingham Mayor Kim Lund signed an executive order directing City departments to take immediate actions to increase housing opportunities in Bellingham. One action directs staff to immediately present an interim ordinance to Bellingham City Council for consideration that would remove parking minimums citywide while following best practices for ADA parking, access requirements and other key factors.
At their December 16 meeting, City Council was presented with an interim parking reform ordinance. Council voted to move the ordinance forward for a final vote. The draft interim ordinance is available in the agenda for that meeting.
City Council approved the interim ordinance January 13, 2025, after a public hearing that same day. The public hearing and Council discussion will be available here.
The ordinance is effective starting January 28, 2025. Because it is an interim measure, it will be in effect until January 2026, unless it is extended.
Over the next year, we will evaluate the effects of the ordinance and collect feedback from the community that will be used to develop a

Providing Feedback

A public hearing was held January 13, 2025. You can watch the hearing at cob.org/meetings. Questions can be sent to planning@cob.org.

Frequently Asked Questions

As a homeowner or developer, what could this ordinance mean for me?

If the interim ordinance is approved, it will be in effect for 12 months, unless extended. While in effect permits would be able to be submitted for projects that allow for new construction or remodels that don’t meet minimum parking requirements.

For instance, a homeowner could submit permits for a project to convert their garage to an ADU, even if that means they would lose parking spaces required under existing code. Before passage of the ordinance, homes were required to have a minimum number of parking spaces, and, if homeowners wanted to add something like an accessory dwelling unit (ADU) to their property, they would have needed to be able to accommodate parking requirements for that new ADU plus parking for their home. Removal of minimum parking requirements will allow property owners to determine how many parking spaces they would like to maintain, and opens the door to construction of other housing units on their property.

Developers have the option of submitting permit applications for projects that reflect the amount of parking they think is reasonable for their projects. They can decide whether to create the number of parking spaces they would have previously under the code, or to use some of that parking land for additional housing units instead. They may also amend previously issued permits.

What are Bellingham’s parking space minimum requirements?

Before approval of the interim ordinance, Bellingham’s parking space requirements would need to be used to determine how many parking spaces must be provided on a property based on what that property is being used for. Those requirements are all listed in our municipal code.

Some examples include requiring:

For multi-family residences, the total number of parking spaces is based on the unit type:
- Studio: 1 space per unit
- 1-2 bedroom: 1.5 spaces per unit
- 3+ bedroom: 2 spaces per unit
Single family residences must provide two parking spaces per house and then an additional space for each bedroom beyond three bedrooms.
Furniture and large appliance stores must have four spaces for every 500 square feet of gross floor area.
For parking in Urban Villages, the residential requirements vary, but are generally less than the single/multi-family requirements. Non-residential requirements vary, but include 1 parking space for every 500 square feet of office space. Downtown, Old Town, and Fairhaven all have some areas that are exempt from parking requirements.

How did these rules come about?

In 1947, the City of Bellingham adopted its first zoning ordinance, which included three parking standards. In 1969, parking codes were substantially updated – although there have been minor revisions over the last several decades, the codes had not seen any major reforms in more than 55 years before the interim ordinance was approved in January 2025.

Most municipal parking codes in the United States were developed in the 1930s and 40s. At that time, parking policy across this country was mostly a copy and paste exercise, rather than based on the parking needs of individual communities.

To establish minimum parking requirements, many local governments used manuals created by the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE), founded as an organization focused on moving as many cars and trucks as fast as possible in the 1930s. They used standards that didn’t consider or prioritize pedestrians, mass transit, or alternative modes of transportation. Also, most parking space requirements were developed based on peak parking demand. All of this led to an overabundance of parking spaces. For each car in this country, there 6-8 parking spaces.

Urban planners who use the ITE manuals to set minimum parking requirements therefore shape a city where everyone will drive wherever they go and park free when they get there.” (Truth in Transportation Planning UCLA.edu)