For three decades, the city has been promoting new big-time retail (such as Wal-Mart) on Howard Street, albeit a couple miles south where the big four department stores once were. The city’s sales pitch, then with the subway and light rail and now with the Red Line, has been that mass transit should attract new development, not auto access. But new development has perversely been more attracted away from rail transit in places like Harbor East, Canton, Locust Point and now 25th Street. Parking has ruled, not transit-oriented development.

The setback on the southwest corner of Howard/25th is because the developer is using the existing building. As I said, I agree that this is a mistake, both for the community and development’s sake. It locks the development into the tiny and hard-to-access parking lot in the front instead of the large three level parking deck next to it.

The “excess” parking that will not be used on a regular basis (only in peak periods) is almost certainly located mostly in the middle level of the big parking deck under Wal-Mart and above Lowe’s, so getting rid of it wouldn’t buy a whole lot in terms of better design anywhere in the development.

The structured parking on the east side will be used mostly by residents, not retail, so it will not sit empty on a regular basis and will be a big marketing point for the residences. The freestanding ramp allows that parking to be located totally above the retail and not in a conventional parking deck, to allow more and better ground level activity. Whether it looks good enough is something folks will have to judge, but in my opinion, it should work.

According to the info from the Sun, the parking space total relative to the area equals about 3 spaces per 1000 sq ft. That’s a lot less than many suburban practices of 5 per 1000, but sounds like something the City would have. In that area 3 unnecessary. Wouldn’t it just be cheaper for the City to allow a reduction, or is there no way to do that procedurally legal manner. Perhaps the retailers policy is to have too many parking spaces, because they’re usually based in the suburbs. But I know a lot of developers complain about having to provide X amounts of parking. Reducing the parking could go a long way to getting rid of that ridiculous ramp on Howard.