Wow.  That didn’t take long.

Multiple outlets posted this note from Atlantic Station owners on Friday…

“We are listening to our local community and neighbors’ feedback, suggestions and concerns regarding the new Atlantic Station parking program,” the statement said. “We recognize there are areas we would like to further evaluate and more clearly communicate to ensure this new transition will be as smooth as possible for our retailers and guests.

“A revised plan for the new parking program, which will offer two hours of free parking with validation from shops restaurants, gyms, food trucks and Regal Cinemas, will be shared pending further review.”

I’m not shocked by the general public’s reaction.  Take away anything free and you’ll hear about it.  I’m just a bit surprised that the owners weren’t confident enough in their original plan to stick to their guns on this issue.

Easy for me to say, I guess.  I don’t have bajillions on the line.

This past Saturday’s New York Times featured an op-edy sorta piece from a George Mason prof on the economic effects of parking requirements.

If developers were allowed to face directly the high land costs of providing so much parking, the number of spaces would be a result of a careful economic calculation rather than a matter of satisfying a legal requirement. Parking would be scarcer, and more likely to have a price — or a higher one than it does now — and people would be more careful about when and where they drove.

The subsidies are largely invisible to drivers who park their cars — and thus free or cheap parking spaces feel like natural outcomes of the market, or perhaps even an entitlement. Yet the law is allocating this land rather than letting market prices adjudicate whether we need more parking, and whether that parking should be free. We end up overusing land for cars — and overusing cars too. You don’t have to hate sprawl, or automobiles, to want to stop subsidizing that way of life.

…Imposing higher fees for parking may make further changes more palatable by helping to promote higher residential density and support for mass transit.

Of course this is easier said than done, as the expectation of free parking is a national issue, which individual communities must struggle with locally.  How do you weigh the parking expectations of out-of-towners looking to spend money in your city with the realities of how parking is affecting your urban landscape?