This credit is meant to reduce the number of cars on the road and limit the sprawl of parking facilities. It also helps encourage carpooling and reduce transportation-related environmental impacts like emissions, stormwater runoff, and the urban heat island effect.

You have three options to earn this credit:

• The easiest way to earn the credit—if it is possible on your project site—is to not add any additional capacity to the existing parking facilities.
• If that is not possible on your project site, then you will need to limit the parking capacity to not exceed the minimum zoning requirement and provide preferred parking for carpools or vanpools for 5% of the total parking spaces.
• If your project is located in an area that does not provide minimum local zoning requirements, you will need to limit the parking capacity to 25% below the recommended parking spaces in the Institute of Transportation Engineers “Parking Generation” study. (See Resources.)

Getting mileage out of your efforts

Parking is part of the bigger picture of supporting alternative transportation and reduced dependency on automobiles. It goes hand-in-hand with public transportation (SSc4.1), walking and bicycle commuting (see SSc4.2), and carpooling.

If all you do is limit parking capacity in an area where options other than driving aren’t viable, your efforts could prove frustrating to drivers rather than truly beneficial. To help things along, you might also consider implementing a program to provide incentives for public transit and carpooling.