Sprawl retrofit: A strategic approach to parking lot repair

The idea of retrofitting sprawl into something more sustainable has become an important part of current planning practice. This paper makes a contribution to the suburban retrofit/sprawl repair literature by targeting one dimension of sprawl: parking lots. I propose a pragmatic, spatially explicit series of steps whose end product is a phased plan for parking lot rehabilitation. The method emphasizes spatial context - who and what are near parking lots - combined with information about the level of parking need, public space requirements, and investment potential. Phoenix, Arizona, is used as a case study, but the method could be replicated in any city. The method is forward-looking in that it relies on a change of attitude about cities and their form, a deeper concern for urban space that would need to coincide with changing behaviors and attitudes, and the creative implementation of retrofitting strategies.