California YIMBY Statement on Passing of Donald Shoup
UCLA Urban Planning Professor Transformed California, National Land Use
“Professor Shoup was a testament to the value of transformative policy
backed by solid analysis“
SACRAMENTO – Today, California YIMBY issued the following statement on the news of the passing of UCLA professor emeritus Donald Shoup.
“Professor Shoup was a giant in the planning profession and deserves most of the credit for popularizing parking reform,” said Brian Hanlon, CEO of California YIMBY. “Shoup’s economic analyses of the high cost of free parking go back fifty years, and were the foundation of our work to pass AB 2097 in California in 2022.”
AB 2097, authored by then-Assemblymember Laura Friedman (now the Congressional representative for the 30th district), was the first-ever U.S. state legislation to eliminate parking mandates, which were introduced in some cities in the 1920s and spread rapidly during the post-war boom in the 1950s.
For decades, California cities over-produced parking — Los Angeles County alone has 200 square miles of parking — largely because of rules that require the construction of parking with each new unit of housing or commercial business.
Professor Shoup made city parking mandates a major focus of his economic research. He proved that these rules were rarely grounded in any analysis of parking needs or economic feasibility, but rather, were the product of outdated and damaging assumptions in the planning profession.
Shoup used his deep knowledge of the topic to play a lead role in the passage of AB 2097 – providing detailed analysis to policy makers and pressuring various professional associations to support the measure. Numerous analyses show that the bill, which applies to new multi-family housing projects across the state, would reduce the cost of housing from $40,000 to as much as $100,000 per home.
“We face a lot of challenges in achieving our goals of housing affordability and climate action, and parking mandates were a major barrier,” said Nolan Gray, Legislative Director for California YIMBY. “When the history of housing reform is written, Professor Shoup’s tireless efforts to educate his students and policymakers on the damage done by parking mandates will be a centerpiece. We will miss him dearly – but will carry his legacy forward in our work to make California a more affordable and sustainable place to live, work, and raise a family.”
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About California YIMBY: California YIMBY is a community of neighbors who welcome more neighbors. We believe that an equitable California begins with abundant, secure, affordable housing. We focus on housing and land use policy at the state and local level to ensure grassroots organizers and city leaders have the tools they need to accelerate home building. https://cayimby.org/