In a recent Law360.com article written by Andrew McIntyre, the author addresses three issues in converting parking to accommodate the growing need for E-commerce delivery space and the future effects of driverless vehicles:
- Zoning
- Market unpredictability
- Cost
The article discusses the efforts some developers are making to build flexibility into today’s parking space construction to allow repurposing of these assets in the future.
One of the hurdles facing developers are zoning codes that are centered on today’s parking requirements. Zoning regulations often trail changing market trends by years, if not decades. “Lots of zoning ordinances require more parking than is necessary,” says Dusty Elias Kirk of Reed Smith’s Global Real Estate Practice Group. “Zoning ordinances have not changed…They haven’t gotten there yet.”
A complete discussion of the three issues can be found here.