By David Hickey, APThe Dallas-Forth Worth area has been experiencing a surge in parking demand and some parking garages are running out of space, a city official said Wednesday.
In Dallas, a garage in Southlake mall is running out to about 3,000 square feet, said Dave Rios, the city’s senior city planner.
That’s a third of what it was when the mall opened in 2000.
Dallas-Fort-Worth officials have been working with their city counterparts in South Lake to address the issue, but it’s not a new one, said Matt Cottrell, the district’s vice president of development and business development. “
The parking is so tight that there’s a lot going on, and the cars are sitting there for too long.”
Dallas-Fort-Worth officials have been working with their city counterparts in South Lake to address the issue, but it’s not a new one, said Matt Cottrell, the district’s vice president of development and business development.
He said parking is a problem in the area and it’s getting worse.
The city has issued permits for about 700 parking spaces at Southlake, which sits across from the mall.
About 400 are in parking garrets, and about 60 are in garages, Cottrel said.
But many garages will not have the space to fill.
That means many of the cars parked in Southlakes garages can’t be put to good use, Cotrell said.
That’s a big problem for people who work downtown, who may be coming from out of town, and they may want to park there to spend time downtown.
The problem isn’t limited to Southlake.
In some of the biggest markets in the country, like Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, there are garages in many areas that are not being filled, said Jennifer Krasner, the head of market analysis at IHS Global Insight.
The Dallas area has seen an increase in car ownership, she said.
In the city, a total of 5.3 million vehicles were registered in 2016, a record high.
Krasner said there is also a shortage of parking.
In a recent report, the National Association of Realtors found that about half of the country’s 4.5 million households have at least one car.
Krisner said that is not surprising.
“People just want to have more cars,” she said, adding that car ownership is not the only reason people have cars.
In the past, Dallas has offered free parking to people who need it.
That program ended in January.
Rios said he expects more free parking this year.
The city is in the process of developing a program for individuals to get a discount on parking tickets.