Topic: Parking help! We're currently full (98% occupied) and parking is a huge problem.

Parking help.

We're currently full (98% occupied) and parking is a huge problem. We have just enough parking spaces to meet code requirements (1.5 spaces per apartment) but in reality, we know that isn't enough. We have 220 apartments and we have a combination of 330 spaces (open parking, handicap parking, reserved parking, and detached garage).

We have no space to designate visitor parking. We have no where for residents/guests to park outside of the community gates and then walk in. It's literally just those 330 spaces. I counted the vehicles that we have on file and it's more than 330.

I'm considering implementing parking permits to get an accurate count of how many guest vehicles are on site at any given time. Obviously night time is the worst for parking when everyone is home, but I need to be able to determine if the problem is exacerbated by excessive guests staying over.

But if it's not excessive guests ... then what? Then what do I tell my residents who have more than 1.5 cars per their apartment?

Any tips or suggestions for me? I really feel like there's not much else I can do but I've got to try something because these people are after my head insisting something be done. There's no where for me to add parking spaces so I need to find a different solution.

Thanks!

Interested in responses...we are in the same boat, especially when occupancy gets high. We attempted assigned parking but found that unassigned parking creates less complaints.

Prospects didn’t ask about parking?

They do but we simply tell them that parking is open and at a first-come, first-served basis. We don't elaborate.

I should also add that we just finished a lease up so many people moved in when the community was half full. So parking was ample. Now we're at max capacity and they're losing their minds about having to walk 1 building over. I actually got an e-mail today that she's worried about sex trafficking by having to walk too far to find an open spot. #dramatic

So misleading when you know there isn’t enough. I’d be pissed as well.

So what you do you suggest I tell people? It is not misleading. Our parking is, in fact, open and first-come, first-served. There's nothing misleading about that statement when people ask what is our parking policy.

Well I would be surprised if it’s always worded that way. You know they want to know if there is enough spaces. They are going to start posting reviews regarding this issue. Then, how will you answer the question.

That's literally what I'm asking for advice on right now.

But, we all know they’re going to turn that around. Do you have 2 and 3 bedrooms?

Yes, we do. And we have several roommate situations where they may have 3 or 4 adults in an apartment, each with their own car. It's frustrating. So I'm trying to figure out what to do now to help alleviate the problem.

Why would a company build a complex with so few spaces.

Clearly the developer did not consider it an issue that there would not be adequate parking for full occupancy. I managed an asset once that had the same issue. In our case we would not exceed 96-97% occupancy. The property sat in the Buckhead neighborhood of Atlanta, GA so we could push rents high enough to bridge the occupancy gap. Plus the walk score (if there was such a thing in 1999) was high so people could walk to lots of places. We did manage tag numbers but I do not recall having assigned parking.

The better question is why does the city only require so little spaces. The property was built up to code. Yes it sucks that they didn't think to add more, but that is now neither here nor there because there's nothing we can do about it now.

This is also not the first time a community has had this problem and it certainly won't be the last.

I would LOVE if I could limit occupancy like that. The different in parking between 95% and 98% is a huge one even though it seems small. The problem, however, is that our owners want us to maintain 3 vacant units at all times.

yes, you’re in a tight spot for sure. No pun intended.

I am very much in the same boat as you. City approved 2.4 stalls per unit (2 required parking spaces are the single car garage and driveway in front of the garage). Much like you we're trying to manage a situation we didn't create. I know several units have 4 and 5 vehicles. Our rules very clearly state no more than two vehicles are allowed per unit and enforcement is about to begin with permits and towing. It's crappy.

if you are talking about the property we worked at together, we did have assigned parking. Each space had a number and each apt was assigned a certain number space but we had a lot of people who would try to park there and walk to local businesses (clubs)

Cory, must be nice to have a good memory. I’ll blame it on being preggers while managing that asset. We actually worked on two properties together though, right?

Tarla Thompson McCann yes, we did!! I learned a lot and experienced a lot of new things at the one in Buckhead. In town is definitely different from the burbs. I had a prospect tell me recently that she looked at a property “in-town” and they had absolutely no guest parking. They had permits and only residents got permits. Guest are not allowed to park on property, not even temporarily. Crazy.

If parking is in high demand and low supply, I would start charging for assigned spaces. If you have 220 apartments and 330 spaces then set aside 130 guest spaces and make 220 pay parking spaces. That way you have enough for 1 space per apartment. Or start out with a small number of assigned spaces and see how well it goes over with residents signing up. It will probably very popular and a great money maker for your property.

I feel for you. I’ve been down this road. Absolutely every car should be registered with a parking decal. You will very quickly see how many guest cars there will be. Garages cannot be used for storage. If they have a garage they must park their car in it. Limit the number of cars per apartment/per resident. You would be surprised how many people have 2 cars (company/hobby car) Have a strict tow policy, preferably with a night attendant monitoring parking decals, people that are parked illegally, as well as giving residents a ride to their apartment if they have to park far. Ours had a cell phone that if you were coming home late alone could call, they would meet them and escort them to their building. I know it sounds harsh and, unfortunately, not a quick solution but your residents will appreciate that you are pro-active. Ignore it, you will lose all your great residents.

Have you ensured your garages are being used for parking and NOT for storage?

No, I do need to do that because I know some are storage. The problem with that, though, is that we have 36 garages that surround only 2 of my 9 buildings. The buildings where the garages are do NOT have parking problems. The parking is sufficient there. :/ So those residents don't feel the need to rent them for parking because open parking is fine. But they're too far away for the other 7 buildings of residents to want to rent them and walk.

It clearly wasn't laid out very well :(

I hear what you're saying, HOWEVER it's not too far to park and walk if you're guaranteed a parking spot when you come home at night and don't have to drive around looking for one, to say nothing of the protection for your car against the elements. Those garages are still valuable for residents in any building. They should not be used solely for storage when your parking is that tight.

That's a good point. Thank you!

Follow-up question:

How many of you do not allow overnight guest parking? How do you handle that?

I'm thinking of implementing it (after we do parking permits to see how many guests are on site) but am worried about the fight that will follow of residents screaming "I pay $8740478302 per month and you're telling me I can't have a guest?!".

Our visitor spaces specifically state visitors from 8 a.m. to Midnight; resident parking allowed from midnight to 8 a.m. However, they still need a development decal. We do plan to designate a section where an overnight visitor can get advance permission to stay. The way around having a last minute late night visitor stay would be for them to park in the garage or driveway and the resident with the parking sticker would park after midnight in the visitor spot. Who knows how this will work. Fingers crossed!

I’m interested to hear what others have to say. I’m leasing up a 54 unit building at the moment and it’s 1.5 parking spaces per apartment, most of which are reserved and either come with the apartment or are available at an additional monthly rate.

Maybe try assigning parking spots, like 1 bedrooms get 1 and 2 bedrooms get 2. Then if you have any left over you could add them as a rentable item and increase revenue. But parking passes is a good start.

The way I’m doing it at my 54 unit lease up is 1 bedrooms get 1, 2 bedrooms get 2 (one automatically comes reserved in the garage), and additional is first come first served. There’s an option to rent a reserved space for $50/mo outside and $100/mo in the garage. We’ll see how it goes once people move in

I think we have a mid ride like this and the first space is free and additional spaces are $100. I'll have to look to see it it's one time or per month.

We allow a maximum of two cars per apartment and any additional have to pay for a carport or garage. Still struggling though because of course a lot of people don’t want to pay anything extra. Also have residents that want more handicapped parking, which of course would take away other general parking.

That tight, registered parking is a must. You're not under obligation to offer guest parking - the guests can use Uber is.

Parking ratios are usually set by number of apartments. It should e based on the number of bedrooms.

That would be so nice!wish it were. We have 3 bedrooms with roommates, some of them can have up to 5 or 6 adults living in one unit!

Do you have any occupancy guidelines? We allow 2 persons per bedroom but no more than 3 unrelated adults. So families with more than 3 people rarely have more than 2 cars. And if it’s strictly roomies, then 3 is the max occupancy.

I have 208 units and only 278 parking spaces. I implemented a parking permit program and highly recommend you do the same!

Feel free to PM me if you want all the gory details...I won’t bore all these nice people!

We implemented a color coded parking permit program and parking zones but still have a tough time managing visitor parking. We tow a LOT and our reviews suffer because of it. Check out this site. I wish we would have gone this route.
parkingboss.com

ParkM.com

Many many properties in Detroit charge for parking in addition to the rent. I know 3 properties that charge $50. A month.

I have something similar...

1) Check with your local laws on towing / assigned parking as it is an issue I had on my property in Oregon. If assigned and someone parks in the space that is not the resident we as managers can't tow.. the resident has to have it towed and then be at risk for rebuttal from whomever was towed.

2) We have a one car per unit, 2nd car is $30 a month (each car has a sticker with plate number label) .. this allows no trading on cars etc.. -- (I so recommend a nice label maker for this)

3) We did 4 visitor parking after we did this .. with a time limit and no over night unless obtained a permit from the office during office hours.

I hope that no matter what route you take you will be happier in it.

I’ve dealt with the same issue in the same town. I recommend parking decals and a very limited amount of visitor parking. Tow cars randomly in the evenings. When residents get upset, let them know that you are doing this for them, so that they have a spot to park close to their apartment.

Kate, Lots of good ideas moving forward but I’m not sure what you can implement mid-stream. I would hate to be in your position. With all the various work schedules today you probably don’t have everyone home at the same time.

Give them a week or two to pick up the decals before implementing towing. Remind them daily to pick it up and that if they don’t, their car could be towed. It’s not fun, but something has to be done and options are limited in this scenario.

Check with local law.. we had to give 60 day notice for the full change of addendum ... Each person had to also sign a new parking addendum with up to date information, photo of car, proof of ownership and copy of insurance.

We provide one parking space per apartment and then hold aside the additional spaces for people to rent monthly. No guest spaces, let them know the priority is the resident and therefore, we provide as many spaces as possible to them only. Good way to get ancillary income and then you are not public parking. Assign spaces would be a must.

In the Bay Area, there is no extra parking at all. We allow one space per apartment and all additional spaces are rented at $100/mo. Great ancillary income.

If there’s no extra spaces what are renting? It sounds like there are extra spaces

Apologies, there's no guest spaces. There are additional spaces onsite (just 9) and these are all rented out. Very few places in California come equipped with parking to handle today's amount of resident vehicles. Currently, most residents with additional vehicles must find street parking.

In big city urban areas, where parking is extremely limited, this is a very common problem. If you know it’s an issue, you should assign tags. You don’t have to assign a spot, just enough tags per person on the lease. And the tags must be visible in the car or they will be towed. If they have a guest, you can have some guest parking that is clearly marked and is first come, first served. You probably have several people with multiple cars or with illegal occupants. You will figure all of that out very quickly. Good luck!

Start with parking permits but wit no area for guest parking I don’t know how you can implement a towing plan. Yikes!

Parking boss might be a company that will work well for you. After all it sounds like trying to come up with a solution, implement it and monitor it is a lot of additional work. Check them out - it might be the right fit for your property.

Limit the number of cars per apt. Use permits to monitor

We limit parking to only 1 per lease holder with a maximum of 2 per apartment and assigned parking. We are able to isolate the guest parking and have the guests register their car to the apartment they are visiting or it is towed. We have 200 units and 1.5 spots per unit also.

I'm so excited about a new development in my parking saga! I called the city to confirm how many handicap spaces I was required to have. I found out that I have THREE TIMES the requirement! So as long as my owner approves it I'll be able to significantly reduce the number of spots that are HC while still being compliant which will help to add more open parking spots. I'll even be able to have more than the required number and still make a great improvement.

Yippie!

Kate, I think a lot of these replies contain good info, and I think there is an additional element that is very important: it's imperative that you and the staff accurately set parking expectations for new incoming residents. If there will be times when they have to walk a distance, or even if there are times when they may not have a parking space it's far better for the prospect to know that ahead of time rather than after they move in. That way you'll end up with people who are ok with the parking situation, and the number of complaints will drop dramatically.

Yes, it may increase the number of showings before you convert a lead, but the resident you end up with will be less likely to complain, and more likely to renew.

Regarding parking; I have a client who has had great results by assigning parking and using a tow service that helps oversee it. You can also limit the number of cars per apartment. Even for 3 bedrooms, you can limit to 2 cars per apartment. This is good news/bad news issue. Love high occupancy, hate parking issues.
You will need to do some good PR if you implement assigned spots. And a few people will get towed before everyone respects the plan. Be careful about giving up too many HC spots. You must be able to provide reasonable accommodations for those with disabilities, over and above city required HC spots.

Implement parking permits with an expiration month/year date that coincides with the lease term. Our parking policy states that only one vehicle per lease holder. All lease holders are 18 years or older. We have a small 228 unit community as well and have no ability to add more spaces or have residents park outside of the property. It will be a training issues, and follow up audit in the evenings for at least a month with your towing company so existing residents understand the new policy. It takes some work but it can be done.

First at every property I have been recently involved, we assign a numbered space to a particular unit. Second we require a guest permit re such guest spaces. Re “Acessible Spaces”, allbeit beyond “required” may need to amend final recorded plat and make sure no other governance regs.
Review lease and rules/regs.

First, if there is no off-site parking and no parking permits are required at your site, then you might have non-residents/non-guests parking in your lot. So, investing in a good parking permit and towing vendor relationship will begin to clean house. Second, consider any new residents get a limit of 1-2 spaces MAX. Third, at move in/time that the permit gets distributed require they prove ownership by giving you a copy of the registration in exchange for the permit. You can take it a step further and require that the car be registered to the address affiliated with their apartment address. I have seen that before. Fourth, consider a small monthly parking fee for the permits; say $5, $10, $15 or $20 per month. They will think twice before bringing junkers and/or other cars. Lastly, consider exclusive Reserved Parking. 2-3 per building or so. $50 per month in a garden community. $100-$150 in a more urban setting. VERY IMPORTANT: COMMUNICATE YOUR INTENTIONS and the NEW RULES with ALL Current and Future Residents. Give them enough time to adjust before anyone gets towed. Post notices. Send mass emails. Leave a note under everyone's door. Send to their mailbox. Go the extra mile in COMMUNICATING. Add a 1-2 liner on your email signature about reading the new parking rules notice. Staff can have a note on their desks" Ask me about the new Parking Rules!. Good luck!

When my property was built, 1 bedrooms were allowed 1 car & 2 bedrooms were allowed 2 vehicles.

Now, each apartment gets 1 free covered spot. We have 216 units and have assigned 216 covered parking spots. We have 173 uncovered spots for 2nd vehicles and guests. At move in, residents sign an addendum stating only 2 vehcies are allowed per apartment due to the limited parking available. We make sure we log each apartment's vehicles in our system. We often do parking lot checks to ensure vehicles in uncovered spots are operable and not just parked for weeks on end.

We are the only property that I am aware of in my city that offers free covered. It is a great selling tool and it also helps us so that residents are not fighting over spots.

I think that a huge mistake that property managers make is to enlist a towing company to provide your parking lot monitoring services. Their incentive is to tow cars, and I've seen several reviews for properties who have suffered because of this. Implement a resident friendly solution and find a parking management company that provides customer service, lot monitoring and a web based software solution.

Communication is key. Implementing a technology solution is the way to go. We are in 2018, so the physical permit based way of managing the parking is very tedious on the office staff.

Hi Kate, First comment is you are not alone! This is a prevalent problem throughout the US. I am in Arizona and it's close to the #1 complaint in the online reviews (scorpions may edge it out a smidge!).

Next, many of the comments here are correct- if reviews haven't started on the issue, they will. It's good you are working on getting ahead of it so when prospects inevitably ask about what they read, you can confidently and correctly say you've implemented X,Y, & Z to address the issues.

So now on to some ideas. 5-6 adults, each with vehicles, in one unit is untenable. Beginning now for new rentals and upon renewal for existing residents with sufficient notice, I would suggest you implement a maximum # of vehicles or maximum # of parking passes as others have suggested. Parking passes are a must, at the least, if you don't want to go fully down the 1 assigned spot per unit road. You need to know which vehicles are resident vehicles (versus guest or unauthorized occupants). I would hold off on the towing agreements for a bit as those tend to open up a new can of worms you don't need to worry about right now. Also, I agree with others that garages must be used to park a vehicle (perhaps you can ease some of the friction from this by working out a cooperative marketing arrangement with the closest storage facility).

I haven't seen any comments on this yet- Have you measured to see if re-striping is an option? Before you remove HC spots, I would have someone measure for re-striping the others. I've seen sites gain as many as 10 spots doing this. Now, it's possible you start to hear about car dings with this plan because the spots are smallllll.

Good luck! I think it's great you are getting a plan of action together now. Let us know how it goes!

Love how everyone is coming together with some great ideas!

We were having issues with residents using our community for their friends to park/store their vehicles and abandoned vehicles and vehicles of residents that had moved out or left on vacation for several months. We informed residents we were rolling out a parking permit program and it was 2 resident permits and 1 guest permit per apartment. After 9 pm in the evening ALL vehicles would need to display either a resident or a guest permit to have their vehicles parked on our property. We also found in the evening is when parking was an issue and for those residents that work late and are coming home and trying to find a space this has really helped. We did get complaints that I have guests over for dinner and asking them to leave at 9 pm is not reasonable. I suggested that they could use the guest pass or ask their guest to park off street. We now have a better handle on the vehicles that are parked in our community, we can identify if the vehicles are abandoned, who the vehicles belongs because we need proof of registration and we log their license plate information into Yardi. Even if a guest is parked on the property because a guest should have a parking permit displayed and then we can circle back to our resident to follow up on any concerns. The permits match the residents parking space number which does not match their apartment number so there were no safety concerns. The logo on the parking permit did not reflect the apartment community so that put resident fears at ease knowing that someone could not tell where they lived. We still have residents that are not happy about the program or they want additional parking permits. During the summer many of our residents leave the area for months at a time, so that is when the parking lots are open and that is when we get the complaints and residents asking why we need permits when there are ample parking spaces available. These concerns we continue to manage as they come up and highlight the positive benefits to having permits.

Wow, so this seems to be the norm all over the US I see! Hello from Miami, FL! As you may or may not know, Miami is just as a congested as a city can get! Parking is a premium here. When I first got my property in South Miami, over 5 years ago, the parking was HORRENDOUS. Seriously every morning I would have a mob of angry residents outside waiting for me because so and so parked in their spot, or a 'random' car parked there and they had to walk blocks home. There had to be a better way than to overload my plate constantly checking decals and issuing tow warnings. I came across a parking software system called "Oncall parking" (google them). They pretty much turned my property around. No more illegal guests. No more people parking and walking to the mall in my guest spots. Just over all calmness. They take care of everything and their site is user friendly which honestly is a huge plus because even my not-so-tech-savvy residents were able to register on their own and continue to renew their vehicles year after year upon renewal time. Highly effective and their response time is quite impressive. I love that their site gives me all the reports of what was found and/or what cars were towed the night before and why. My mornings have been amazing since and I recommend their services to anyone who has a parking problem and to those who even want to avoid it ever becoming an issue.

Parking garage audit, I'm sure those garages are counted as a spot for part of your 1.5 and residents are not using them for parking vs. storage. Make sure your lease reflects this, begin auditing and enforcing.
Best wishes, parking is tough all over.

I had this same issue. I leased up the building before I realized it was going to be such a problem. Luckily we have a small (8 spaces) over-flow lot that is around the block from us and plenty of street parking. You didn't really mention what you have for overflow or nearby street parking. What are the options for guests other than your lot?
I was able to post signs that say "Resident Parking Only". Then I passed out parking decals to all of the residents. I recently partnered with a towing company, not to monitor, only to tow if I call. I don't want to take the chances of towing a residents car by accident. I gave plenty of warnings, postings, notices, etc. and then I actually got lucky and a resident's car broke down and she had it towed right about the same time this was being implemented. Pretty sure everyone thought I towed a car, lol. So for a short time I would go through the lot first thing in the AM and put a full page warning on any visitor cars. This was our biggest issue with boyfriends and girlfriends staying the night and parking in the lot. The warning said your vehicle info has been recorded and if you park here again you WILL be towed. I didn't have to do it for long. People got the idea and started parking on the street. Besides all of the lot monitoring, I also changed our policy. It was 1 car per licensed driver. We also would have a 2 bedroom with 4 adults and 4 cars. I changed it to a max of 2 parking permits per apartment. So we can still have 4 adults, but they have to decide which 2 get the permits and can use the lot. Of course I had to wait to implement it with the ones we already had, but again I got lucky and they didn't stay long. So, now that everything is in place and switched over, I haven't had a single complaint of a resident coming home late and not finding a space. I hope things go as easy for you to make the changes you need!

We are facing the same problem. Solving parking issue is not a win-win situation. The fact of matter is that parking is limited and nowadays everyone owns a car. I haven't found a solution so far that would solve the problem. It only minimizes it and create less issues. Here are my suggestions based on what we have done:
- Implement parking stickers and make sure only cars with valid stickers can park
- Limit the number of stickers issued to apartments based on the size of apartments
- Minimize assigned parking. I agree with you that assigning parking helps only the resident that it is assigned to. But it creates shortage for everyone else. Keeping it open, first come first served is ideal when you are short of parking.

If you get other ideas, please do share.

We have the same problem and it has been going on for years. I am completely honest when they ask. They can go on any of our reviews and see there is a parking problem. We have tried adding spots anywhere we could. We even joked about getting a parking garage but there is no where to put it. We only allow one car per lease holder. We do require everyone to have a parking sticker. It has gotten out of control lately so we are changing stickers and requiring residents to provide car insurance matching their name and vehicle. I am taking away a few visitor spots because the people that pay to live here deserve a spot more. I am thinking of allowing one visitor pass per household and their guest must use it. If you have more than one visitor at a time they will have to park elsewhere. I am out of ideas.

I think as Property Manager's we have all had this issue. The parking stickers really will help in your parking situation.

It is a good tool to see if you have unauthorized occupants living on your property.

Good luck!

We implemented parking passes / visitor PASS(1) and had nightly towing.
If you did not have a pass you were towed.
We found out that some of our tenants had 4-5 cars for their 2 bedroom apt. Some had zero.

Parking in front of garages for the renters of the garage, enforcing garages for parking only, figuring out if motorcycles are taking up spaces for full sized cars and designating a motorcycle parking location, compact car parking, designating clubhouse parking for future residents only to a during business hours only enforcement, partnering with neighbors close for possible extra parking, parking permits and enforcing it, a small monthly discount for people who choose not to have or keep a vehicle in the parking lot (like for people that work from home), enforcing general standards for occupancy limits per dwelling, converting landscaping into parking spaces, promoting biking and walking to get people into the habit (if that’s even possible)...

Those are all things we’ve thought of or implemented. I feel your pain and understand that parking seems like an afterthought and doesn’t seem to add value during the development phase and that the problems falls almost entirely on people who had no say in the matter.