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It's often said that in Houston, and Texas, we love our cars. While that's probably true, it also seems that we are obsessed about parking. Perhaps some Houstonians feel that free, easy parking adjacent to every building that we're trying to access is an inherently essential feature of Houston's quality of life. The mandatory on-site parking requirements, one of the city's most intrusive land-use regulations, would seem to reflect this viewpoint. And parking controversies tend to generate vocal and emotional responses from the electorate.

As we enter the mayoral election season, I wouldn't be surprised if our candidates hear from citizens that our city isn't providing enough parking, so our officials need to "fix it" - in other words, do what it takes to get us closer to the ideal of easy-and-free parking anywhere we want to go, while no one else can park on our own street except me and my neighbors.

However, I wonder if the politicians and bureaucrats who hear this perspective from the citizenry realize the prices paid for all the vast supply of parking that is implied to be necessary. While I could highlight many ways that the omnipresence of parking as a land use can negatively affect us, such as excessive and polluted storm runoff and urban heat islands, I want to focus on two main impacts: the reduced appeal and effectiveness of walking and the terrific financial burden our obsession with parking places on both the private and public sector.

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Additional large multi-family apartment projects are not necessarily being recommended in the near term, CDS Market Research President Steve Spillette said during Enid Regional Development Alliance’s annual meeting and quarterly luncheon Thursday.

CDS Market Research performed the 2013 Enid Housing Study and recently updated it with current data — leading to recommendations presented during the meeting.

It has been estimated Enid will need 613 new housing units in the next two years, CDS Market Research Senior Analyst Kirby Snideman said during the presentation.

“The majority of these 613 units should be owner-occupied housing and 200 of those, rental housing,” he said.

Spillette said Esplanade Apartments at Stonebridge — on which ground was broken Thursday — will add 200 units in 2016.

“We don’t necessarily recommend any additional large multi-family apartment projects beyond that, in the very near term. That said, we do think that there should be a continued effort on the part — and we’ve heard that some developers are really looking into this — to build smaller rental projects, such as infill rental townhomes,” he said. “We do think that that would actually be a very good thing to add to the market, in addition to the Esplanade project, especially ones that can be done fairly affordably.”

Spillette said there should be continued efforts to increase the number of moderately priced homes."

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