Reduce Car Culture to Increase Access to Healthier Food

The City Fix

2729539332_d930dfeafe.jpgPhoto by Wenzday01 via Flickr.
Today, the New York Times alerted me to a problem that I had no idea sustainable transportation could solve.

It’s well known that low-income urban neighborhoods are “food deserts,” where supermarkets are rare, understocked and overpriced. Greater Greater Washington ran a great piece detailing this phenomenon in the District earlier this year. What’s more, I’ve been familiar with attempts to increase access to supermarkets, including in D.C.

The New York Times, though, mentioned that one of the strategies New York City is using to attract more supermarkets into food deserts is to change the city’s zoning laws that would “free smaller supermarkets from having to supply parking spaces.” Reducing or eliminating parking minimums for new development is good urbanism. But if it can help provide affordable, accessible, and nutritious food to low-income residents of the District - which is already a District goal -- the planning commission has one more very good reason to wean us off of cars.

The District is taking steps to achieve this. Anita Hairston, the Chief of Staff of the Office of Planning, assures me by e-mail that:

–Any commercial building (this would include supermarkets) located in the central employment area of the city and is connected to a Metrorail station can have their parking requirements reduced or eliminated.

–Any commercial buildings that are less than 800 feet from a Metrorail station can have their parking requirements reduced by one-quarter.

–Any planned unit development project (regardless of location) can work with staff in our office to propose potential reduction or elimination of parking requirements. /span>

Furthermore, Ms. Hairston points me to the development project at 3326 Wisconsin Ave. NW, which includes a Giant grocery store. The project was allowed to be built with a reduced number of parking spaces for the supermarket. However, the project still has 536 parking spaces and goes over the minimum restrictions on the residential component of the plan (see page 8, here). So while it is good that D.C. allows for all developments to negotiate with the District to reduce parking, there is still significant room for improvement. If New York succeeds in bringing supermarkets to its food deserts by waiving parking requirements, then D.C. should do the same.