By Seth Daniel
It took a little nighttime surveillance work and the poring over of a lot of data, but a new study from the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) of five communities – including Everett and Chelsea – showed that nearly 25 percent of parking space in apartment buildings are not being used.
Researchers Sarah Lee and Kasia Hart gathered information at traditional large apartment buildings in Everett, Chelsea, Arlington, Melrose, Malden – going out on weekdays between midnight and 4 a.m. to survey the buildings to see if the parking requirements on a lot of the new construction projects was being used.
The simple answer: most new developments are wasting space in building very expensive garages and surface lots.
“We wanted to see if the parking being constructed was being used,” said Lee. “What we found was that a lot of it on average wasn’t being used…We still saw the range of 25 percent of constructed