Communities
Mar. 13th, 2026 11:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithSeparation of Church and Parking Lot
How can we repurpose church parking lots for the better?
But unlike the bank in the bottom left of the first map, whose lot is never full—even predictably so—and where one might justify changing the parking requirements to accommodate this phenomenon, churches are assembly halls. Once or twice a week, they do fill up.
And unlike the banks, churches, mosques, temples, and other houses of worship are civic spaces. These spaces are where neighbors come together to share meals and company, or where folks from dispersed corners of a city unite under a common purpose. If a city lacks the density to begin with, and driving to church is the obvious option, there is no good argument for denying a church its parking—they use it!
But a dilemma lies in the five or six days of the week in which these lots sit empty. Churches and other houses of worship are amenities within neighborhoods, but blocks of street-facing parking lots are the opposite. They sit unused for about 250 to 300 days of the year.
I can think of more options than the article suggested.
* Use the vacant parking lot for business. It could hold food trucks, a farmer's market, a street fair, etc. These are all uses I've seen in some parking lots around my area.
* Group houses of worship so that they can share large parking lots, each on their own day(s) of worship. For instance, the Muslim sabbath is Friday and the Christian one is Sunday. This requires that people not be bigoted assholes, but it's a great way to divide use by timeframe.
* Cluster a house of worship with other communal facilities, such as a school or community center. Again, these tend to be active at different times, so they could use the same parking area without conflicting.
How can we repurpose church parking lots for the better?
But unlike the bank in the bottom left of the first map, whose lot is never full—even predictably so—and where one might justify changing the parking requirements to accommodate this phenomenon, churches are assembly halls. Once or twice a week, they do fill up.
And unlike the banks, churches, mosques, temples, and other houses of worship are civic spaces. These spaces are where neighbors come together to share meals and company, or where folks from dispersed corners of a city unite under a common purpose. If a city lacks the density to begin with, and driving to church is the obvious option, there is no good argument for denying a church its parking—they use it!
But a dilemma lies in the five or six days of the week in which these lots sit empty. Churches and other houses of worship are amenities within neighborhoods, but blocks of street-facing parking lots are the opposite. They sit unused for about 250 to 300 days of the year.
I can think of more options than the article suggested.
* Use the vacant parking lot for business. It could hold food trucks, a farmer's market, a street fair, etc. These are all uses I've seen in some parking lots around my area.
* Group houses of worship so that they can share large parking lots, each on their own day(s) of worship. For instance, the Muslim sabbath is Friday and the Christian one is Sunday. This requires that people not be bigoted assholes, but it's a great way to divide use by timeframe.
* Cluster a house of worship with other communal facilities, such as a school or community center. Again, these tend to be active at different times, so they could use the same parking area without conflicting.
(no subject)
Date: 2026-03-14 08:13 am (UTC)