BY TOM EBENHOH for WEEKLY VOLCANO | 10/9/2026
Attn: The Honorable Mayor Anders Ibsen and Tacoma City Councilmembers
The New Tacoma Neighborhood Council appreciates the opportunity to provide input on the proposed parking code updates impacting the New Tacoma community. As a key community stakeholder, we respectfully submit the following comments and recommendations:
The draft parking code update would eliminate minimum off-street parking requirements citywide and is now headed to the council for review and action.
We support affordable housing, a healthy and walkable downtown and the city’s goal of using public parking more efficiently. We recognize that structured parking adds real cost to new housing and that the Legislature has limited, through SB 5184, HB 1183 and HB 1491, where cities may require parking.
Our concern is not with those goals. It is with how these two changes, taken together, will fall on the residents of New Tacoma, and particularly on seniors, people with disabilities, lower-wage workers and small businesses.
1. The parking code update goes further than state law requires
The Planning Commission evaluated two options. Option A would have amended Tacoma’s parking regulations only as needed to comply with state law. Option B eliminates minimum off-street parking requirements citywide, for all uses in all zones. The commission chose Option B.
This distinction matters. Much of the public discussion has suggested that the state required Tacoma to take this step. The state required part of it. Citywide elimination is a local policy choice, and the council has full authority to modify it.
We ask the council to adopt Option A or, at a minimum, to phase in citywide elimination as frequent transit service is built and operating in each area.
2. Accessible parking must not disappear from new buildings
This is the most serious flaw in the draft. Under the proposal, ADA accessibility requirements would be removed from the zoning code and left to the building code and federal ADA standards. Under those standards, accessible spaces are required only when a building provides parking. A new building that provides no parking at all would therefore be required to provide no accessible parking and no accessible loading area. The city’s own project materials acknowledge this is a change from current rules.
The practical result is that a resident who uses a wheelchair, or a visitor, caregiver or paratransit driver serving a person with a disability, could arrive at a brand-new building with nowhere to stop. We ask the council to require that new buildings above a reasonable size threshold provide, at a minimum, an accessible passenger loading and drop-off zone and, where feasible, accessible parking, whether or not general parking is provided.
3. Transit exemptions should follow transit that exists, not transit that is planned
The draft applies parking exemptions along corridors where high-capacity transit is planned, including Pacific Avenue, Sixth Avenue and South 19th Street. Residents who move into buildings on those corridors will need to reach work, medical care and groceries on the day they move in, not on the day a future transit line opens.
We ask that corridor-based exemptions take effect only when qualifying frequent service is in operation.
4. The cars do not disappear; they move to the curb
Removing parking requirements does not remove a household’s need for a car. Many Tacoma jobs, especially shift work, early-morning work and work in industrial and suburban locations, are not reasonably served by transit. Residents of new buildings without parking will park on neighborhood streets, competing with existing residents, customers and businesses. Where parking is built voluntarily, it is commonly rented separately from the unit at an added monthly cost, which the lowest-income tenants are least able to pay.
5. The two changes collide in New Tacoma
The parking code update will push more residents’ vehicles onto downtown streets. At the same moment, the rate increase makes those same streets more expensive and keeps time limits in place, directing long-term parkers into city garages. A downtown resident of a new building with no parking will face a choice between a time-limited meter at $1.50 per hour and garage parking that can reach roughly $180 to $240 per month. That cost is not in the rent, but it is a real part of what it costs to live downtown. A policy intended to make housing more affordable can quietly add hundreds of dollars a month to the true cost of living in it.
We ask the council to require, before or alongside adoption of the new code, a neighborhood parking management plan for New Tacoma that addresses curb demand, loading and whether residential parking permits or similar tools will be offered, and at what cost.
Specific requests
On the parking code update, we respectfully ask the council to:
1. Adopt Option A, meeting state requirements only, or phase in citywide elimination when frequent transit service is in operation.
2. Require accessible loading and drop-off zones, and accessible parking where feasible, for new buildings above a reasonable threshold, regardless of whether general parking is provided.
3. Tie corridor-based exemptions to transit service that exists, not transit that is planned.
4. Direct staff to prepare a New Tacoma neighborhood parking management plan, including options and costs for residential parking permits, before or alongside adoption.
5. Adequately address accessibility and accessible parking, readiness of transit options, street-parking impacts, mobility for seniors and those with disabilities, other paratransit alternatives, neighborhood impacts and establishment of a review process to revise the plan if required.
We ask that the council weigh these concerns carefully and use its authority to modify the draft before final adoption.
We appreciate your leadership and service and look forward to continued collaboration on these important issues impacting our community.
Sincerely,
NTNC Board – newtacoma.org
New Tacoma Neighborhood Council input on on-street rate increases
Attn: The Honorable Mayor Anders Ibsen and Tacoma City Council members
The New Tacoma Neighborhood Council appreciates the opportunity to provide input on the on-street rate increases going into effect Oct. 13, 2026, impacting the New Tacoma community. As a key community stakeholder, we respectfully submit the following comments and recommendations:
We support affordable housing, a healthy and walkable downtown and the city’s goal of using public parking more efficiently. We recognize that structured parking adds real cost to new housing and that the Legislature has limited, through SB 5184, HB 1183 and HB 1491, where cities may require parking.
Our concern is not with those goals. It is with how these two changes, taken together, will fall on the residents of New Tacoma, and particularly on seniors, people with disabilities, lower-wage workers and small businesses.
Concerns regarding the Oct. 13 on-street rate increase
We understand that the rate increase is already decided and that the city reduced garage pricing first, including lowering the daily maximum from $16 to $12 and introducing the Downtown Parking Savings Pass and the Reduced-Rate Monthly Parking program. These are genuine improvements. The following concerns remain. The increase falls on the people the curb is meant to serve. A two-hour visit to a downtown restaurant, clinic or shop rises from $2 to $3. For seniors on fixed incomes who come downtown regularly, this adds up, and some will simply stop coming. Small businesses, many still recovering from the post-pandemic years, will feel that first.
The reduced-rate program is helpful but narrow. It is income-limited, subject to availability, reassessed quarterly and, based on available reporting, concentrated on the upper levels of a single garage. A worker earning just over the income limit receives no assistance at all. The underlying data leaves a key question unanswered. The 2024 downtown parking study found that up to 31% of on-street stalls were occupied by the same vehicle for five hours or longer. The city has not, to our knowledge, published how many of those long-term parkers are downtown residents living in older buildings without off-street parking. If a meaningful share is residents, the increase raises their cost of living without freeing the curb.
Pay-by-plate and mobile payment create a barrier for residents who do not use smartphone payment apps, and garages are not equally accessible or safe for everyone. Longer walks, stairs, elevators that are not always in service and poorly lit structures at night are real obstacles for seniors, people with disabilities and anyone walking alone after dark.
Specific requests
On the downtown on-street rate increase, we respectfully ask the city to:
1. Expand the Reduced-Rate Monthly Parking program to additional garages and levels and consider a sliding scale rather than a single income cutoff.
2. Consider discounted rates for seniors and people with disabilities.
3. Guarantee a reliable non-app payment option on every metered block and publicize it clearly before and after Oct. 13.
4. Publish the data on who the long-term on-street parkers were, including how many downtown residents there are.
5. Release occupancy and turnover data from after Oct. 13 and commit to a public 12-month review of the rate change, including its effect on downtown businesses.
6. Assess lighting, elevator reliability and security in city garages serving downtown, and publish a plan to address deficiencies.
We appreciate your leadership and service and look forward to continued collaboration on these important issues impacting our community.
Sincerely,
NTNC Board – newtacoma.org
Editor’s note: Owner and Editor of Weekly Volcano is a member-at-large of the New Tacoma Neighborhood Council.
