Parking Planning for Cities, Downtowns, and Neighborhoods

Studio Davis provides parking planning services for cities and districts navigating growth, change, and competing demands for curb space. We help communities understand how parking actually functions on the ground, and translate that understanding into practical strategies, policies, and code updates that support walkable, economically healthy places. Our work spans data-driven parking management plans, pricing and permit programs, and development code reform, with a focus on solutions that can be implemented in the real world.

A Comprehensive Approach to Parking Planning

Parking planning is more than counting spaces or adjusting time limits. In our experience, effective parking systems sit at the intersection of data, policy, pricing, and place. Studio Davis approaches parking as a land use and management issue—one that shapes how downtowns function, how neighborhoods evolve, and how people experience cities and neighborhoods day to day.

Our work integrates analysis of parking supply, demand, and turnover with management strategies and regulatory frameworks that influence long-term outcomes. This allows us to help communities move beyond one-off fixes toward parking systems that are aligned with broader goals for housing, economic development, and transportation.

Our Parking Planning Services

• Parking Inventory & Supply Assessment
  Documentation of on-street and off-street parking supply, including public, private, and shared facilities.
• Occupancy, Turnover, and Utilization Studies
  Field data collection to understand how parking is actually used across time, user groups, and locations.
• Parking Data Analysis & Demand Management
  Analysis of parking patterns to identify constraints, inefficiencies, and opportunities to better manage existing supply.
• Parking Management Planning
  Comprehensive strategies for pricing, time limits, permit programs, and curb management tailored to local context.
• Parking Policy & Development Code Reform
  Updates to zoning and development standards, parking requirements, and policy frameworks to support infill, housing, and walkable development.
• Parking Program Implementation & Evaluation
  Support for rolling out new parking programs—including paid parking and permit districts—and evaluating outcomes over time.
• Parking Management Guidance & Toolkit Development
  Development of practical parking management guidance, toolkits, and playbooks that help cities move from planning to action, including statewide and agency-led resources that support local implementation.
• Wayfinding, Communications, and User Experience
  Strategies to improve how people find, understand, and use parking, reducing confusion and perceived scarcity.
• Transportation Demand Management (TDM)
  Parking-related TDM strategies that reduce vehicle demand and complement broader transportation and land use goals.

Experience Across Diverse Communities

Studio Davis has led parking planning work in communities of all sizes, from large and fast-growing urban centers to small and mid-size cities where parking decisions can have an outsized impact. Our experience ranges from dense streetcar corridors and downtowns, to coastal towns and neighborhood commercial districts, each with distinct constraints, politics, and priorities.

Much of our work is focused on small and mid-size cities, where limited staff capacity and tight budgets make clear, implementable parking strategies especially important. At the same time, we have supported parking planning efforts in larger cities including Portland, Oregon and Charlotte, North Carolina, where scale and complexity introduce different challenges but the same underlying need for data-driven decision-making.

Our nationwide project experience reflects a consistent approach: understanding local context, grounding recommendations in real data, and helping communities move from analysis to action. Regardless of size, we tailor each project to the place at hand and to the decisions cities are actually prepared to make.

Selected Project Experience