Fairfax considers ‘Parking Reimagined’ amendment to increase number of spaces available

“In the wake of new regulations that have reduced the number of parking spaces in some zones, Fairfax County officials are recommending that the Board of Supervisors compensate by increasing parking requirements for accessible spaces,” according to an article in the Gazette Leader. Writer Brian Trompeter reports that shortly after the new “Parking Reimagined” regulations were adopted in 2023, the Board directed county staff to work with stakeholders, the Disability Services Board and developers to ensure the new regulations are compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The ADA requires that a “fixed number” of accessible spaces be maintained, even if the overall number of parking spaces is reduced.

The Parking Reimagined regulations, which went into effect in January, imposed a tiered structure for setting minimum parking requirements, mostly limiting them in mixed-use areas near public transit. Disability advocates have raised concerns that the across-the-board reduction in parking spaces would lead not only to fewer spaces but also to less accessible spaces in terms of design; for example, “drivers sometimes park or crowd in ‘zoned-out’ areas buffering accessible spaces,” blocking necessary space for wheelchair ramps or elevators. After several months of study, county staff “recommended increasing the accessible space ratio from 1 to 25 under the Virginia Uniform Statewide Building Code to 1 to 15,” Trompeter writes, and hopes to have an amendment to the zoning ordinance by 2025.

Fairfax County’s decision to change its recently passed parking reform law is notable not only because it will ensure accessibility for the local disabled community, but also because the county recognized a potential mistake and course-corrected by hiring or engaging directly with disabled people — something that disability and Universal advocates say isn’t done often enough. Steven Wright, a planner, writer, and educator at Universal Design, said this in a Streetsblog USA article, outlining three myths about what parking reform could mean for disability challenges:

“As much as I love and admire the planning industry, I think it does a terrible job of getting input from disabled people,” she adds. “If you don’t have disabled people on your team, you’re going to make a lot of assumptions (about how they live and move) that just aren’t true,” Wright said.