Question about apartment and condo parking lots

[West Seattle since 1979]

This is going to sound like a dumb question, but here goes. I saw this mentioned on one of the articles on the blog, and was embarrassed to ask there.

Is it true that most of the “parking” in condos and apartments is for show only, and can’t really be used to park cars?

I understand that under city law the developers or owners of the buildings don’t have to provide a space for every unit. But I didn’t realize that what they do provide was unusable.

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[miws]

What I have casually noticed, with some townhouse complexes anyway, is that the driveway, on the property itself, is so narrow and tight turning to get to the garage on the back of the building, that it would be tough maneuver a tiny Smart Car into it.

Okay, that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but they even look too tight to park a normal sized compact there, let alone an even smallish SUV.

Mike

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[KBear]

Some apartment parking probably goes unused because they charge extra for it. And some probably goes unused because it’s too hard to maneuver a vehicle into it. Sometimes condo owners will convert their indoor parking into storage and park on the street instead. But a lot of homeowners do the same.

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[newnative]

I never heard of this until the other day, likely on the same thread as the OP. There is certainly enough room in our garage for all kinds of cars to park. My former employer, next door to our condo building, has the same kind of garage and all kinds of cars park in it too (towncars, trucks, cars). This is in the Admiral District.

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[skeeter]

I live in a condo complex built in 2007-2008. All parking spaces are usable.

It’s hard to imagine someone would build unusable parking spaces. Sure – some spaces are better than others. But who would pay for a parking space you couldn’t fit a car into?

I suppose it is possible apartments have different economics. I could see a scenario in which a complex is required to have, say, 15 spaces. So the builder takes the tiniest little corner and paints 15 spaces that no car could ever fit into. The parking spaces therefore don’t get rented out. The builder simply skirted the rules.

The problem, of course, is free street parking. If the city is giving away free street parking it’s really tough for a developer or builder to find someone willing to pay for a parking space. Yes – I know a reserved off-street parking spot has advantages that some are willing to pay for. But most people will opt for free street parking and are willing to put up with some inconvenience in order to save a significant amount of money. When (not if) Seattle stops giving away street parking for free we will have greater adoption of paid offstreet parking.

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[mark47n]

There are minimum requirement in building codes for lane width, space width, etc. The buildings must meet those standards if they have a parking garage or have it designed into those townhomes that you seem to be describing.

At the end of the day it is functional but that doesn’t necessarily mean easy.

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[Sue]

When I lived in a rental complex on Delridge, we had an assigned carport spot and a garage spot included in our rent. Both were totally useable. Most didn’t use the garage because they used it for storage, but we found a way to do both. I live in a rental now in the Junction in a building about 20-25 years old, and the parking is absolutely useable. It’s paid parking with no free spots available, and always a waiting list. I don’t know about the newer buildings though. I do agree with a poster above that a lot of it looks very tight, and you’d have to maneuver just right to get in/out of it. I rented a house on a busy alley before my current apartment, and we used the small garage. We had to back into it because otherwise it was a blind pull-out, and it often took a few tries to get the car straight into the garage that way, but it wasn’t impossible.

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[sam-c]

Yes, seems like some parking is really tight. The parking at the Delridge library is incredibly tight (IMO). decided to stop parking there, and park on the street instead (when going to the library). Once saw someone (who parked between the a light bollard and a car on the other side) take a REALLY LONG time and several attempts to get out of the parking spot because it was so tight. You can only back up so far before you are near the cars on the other side of the driveway.

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