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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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!