Oregon’s new “Parking Management Jump Start Guide” helps cities of all sizes navigate the complexities of parking management with real-world case studies and practical tools.
By Evan Manvel
In October 2024, the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development (DLCD) — the state’s land use planning agency — published the “Parking Management Jump Start Guide,” an in-depth, 132-page manual to help Oregon cities manage parking, at whatever stage they may be in their “parking management journey.”
For cities grappling with parking challenges — whether it’s a lack of enforcement, congested downtowns, or outdated policies — the guide serves as a practical roadmap. Although designed for Oregon communities, its strategies, case studies, and data-driven tools are broadly applicable to cities nationwide. Whether a municipality is just beginning to address parking issues or refining an advanced system, the guide provides clear, actionable steps to navigate this essential but often overlooked aspect of urban planning.
The rationale for the guide
Efficient parking management and regulations, although somewhat straightforward, often lie outside the expertise and comfort zone of local planners and staff. Responsibility for on-street parking often straddles local government departments, with planning, public works, code enforcement, and police departments frequently having roles. This arrangement can stymie leadership or coordination and impede efforts to address the parking needs of a community.
Although smart parking management has long helped cities meet their various goals, a recent Oregon regulatory change has increased local government interest. Working to boost housing production, help small businesses, and reduce climate pollution from transportation, the DLCD adopted rules in 2022 requiring Oregon’s metro-area cities and counties to repeal most off-street parking mandates. Most Oregonians now live in cities or areas of cities where off-street parking supply is driven by the market, rather than one-size-fits-all government requirements.
For decades, local governments across America have avoided parking conflict by requiring oversupply, with each development forced to provide abundant off-street parking. Oregon cities may now face more situations with parking spillover from one development to another, and more demand to manage congested areas.
Hence, the guide was born.
Oregon's in-depth manual offers a blueprint other cities could follow to navigate urban planning.
Stages of the journey
The DLCD hired Brian Davis of Studio Davis to be lead author of the guide. Davis has extensive experience developing parking management plans for communities in Oregon and other states.
The guide is organized based on the parking management journey, or the process by which municipalities progress from having few parking issues and little to no parking management to requiring sophisticated strategies and technical interventions to address significant parking challenges.
From initial parking challenges where there’s plenty of supply and all is needed is a bit of striping and wayfinding, to high-demand situations where advanced pricing and technology tools come into play, the guide details how cities can manage parking across this gamut. The chapters follow each stage, providing best practices and stories of cities that have improved in each area.
The guide starts with a set of basic open-ended questions for communities and advice for engaging residents to help identify the scale and location of a perceived parking problem. Either before or after such discussions, cities can use the companion occupancy and turnover data collection spreadsheet tool to clarify the reality on the ground. The tool enables users to upload data into GIS maps for more visual learners. Such heat maps can help a city focus on precisely where the parking problem is and move excess demand to where the problem is not.
The guide’s remaining chapters cover signage, striping and wayfinding; time limits and special use stalls; meters and payment systems; permit systems; parking benefit districts; enforcement; and technology and parking management. The manual concludes with model code language for parking benefit districts, a best practice.
Case studies
The signage and wayfinding chapter includes a case study of Grants Pass (population 39,000), which brought together public art and the city’s branding as an outdoor destination to highlight its eight public parking lots. These lots, which are named after local flora and fauna, feature public art pieces based on each lot name, such as Brown Bear, Salmon, Grasshopper, and so forth.
The guide shares the story of two approaches to parking management used in different areas of Newport (population 10,000). In one area, the city instituted time limits, while in the most congested bayfront area, it installed meters charging $1/hour during peak visiting hours, with four adjacent zones having permit zones.
The chapter on enforcement, a critical piece of successful parking management, outlines various public and private approaches and notes which Oregon cities use the different approaches. It includes a case study of Ashland (population 21,000), which switched its vendor after a competitive bid. Ashland now brings in net revenue from its parking enforcement contract.
For those communities open to more advanced management, the guide tells the stories of Eugene and Bend. Eugene has a strategically priced residential parking permit system and an approach focused on managing parking demand near its university basketball stadium. For its part, Bend has a new set of dynamic signage and cameras to direct people to available spots, while noting parking overstayers for enforcement (see “Bend’s Blueprint”).
Broadly applicable
As many of Oregon’s cities are struggling financially, the guide includes rough costs of implementing each approach, from occupancy studies to metering, based on recent examples across the state. It also includes estimates of income. A companion tool enables cities to estimate the revenue and costs of instituting metering in an area, including installing the meters and conducting enforcement. The spreadsheet enables users to add in localized occupancy and turnover data, or to use data from eight other areas that may be comparable.
Although framed for Oregon communities, the guide is broadly applicable across America. It is likely most helpful for small-to-medium cities that do not have extensive resources or experience managing parking.
Oregon is not the only state helping cities manage parking. The Colorado legislature recently set limits on parking mandates near transit, and the Colorado Department of Local Affairs this past December published a guide titled “Best Practices in Parking Management Strategies.”
The DLCD intends for communities to use its guide, in partnership with the parking industry, to provide a positive experience for parkers and result in a fiscally neutral or positive outcome for parking owners and managers (including cities), while acting as a lever to create more housing, facilitate small business growth, and achieve vibrant Oregon communities.
The guide is available in various forms on the state’s web site, including as a StoryMap, enabling readers to browse and zoom into local stories of parking management.
EVAN MANVEL is the climate mitigation planner for the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development. He can be reached at evan.manvel@dlcd.oregon.gov.
