Approximately 190,500 parking spaces! Parking facility plan for Qingdao’s central urban area released.

Approximately 190,500 parking spaces! Parking facility plan for Qingdao’s central urban area released.

On the 14th, the Qingdao Municipal Bureau of Natural Resources and Planning announced the pre‑approval public notice for the revised Special Plan for Parking in Qingdao’s Central Urban Area. According to the announcement, the plan was developed in line with the city’s comprehensive transportation development strategy and in response to the new national, provincial, and municipal requirements and concepts—such as industrialized development and integrated governance—emerging in recent years regarding parking. Guided by the goal of effectively addressing parking challenges and enhancing urban quality, the plan was prepared on the basis of the second citywide survey of parking resources in the central urban area.

In this revision of the plan, the scope of the master plan covers the entire administrative area of Qingdao City, with the key planning areas being Shinan District, Shibei District, Licang District, Laoshan District, and Chengyang District. (Including the Hongdao Economic Zone) and the West Coast New Area. The planning horizon spans the short term to 2022 and the long term to 2035, with the scope of application limited to parking facilities for small passenger vehicles. This plan aims to optimize and adjust parking capacity and spatial distribution, establish a rational parking supply system, and implement comprehensive measures to alleviate parking shortages; it also seeks to refine policies and regulations, strengthen governance mechanisms, and foster a favorable environment for the parking industry, while promoting coordination between dynamic and static traffic management to effectively enhance urban quality.

To this end, the plan will be implemented across multiple fronts:

(1) Scale control and hierarchical zoning. Grounded in the city’s overall transportation development, and guided by the principle of “hierarchical zoning and differentiated forecasting,” a comprehensive approach is employed to project the growth of private car ownership, total parking spaces, and public parking capacity. Three categories of parking zones are delineated, with tailored supply and management strategies implemented accordingly. Tourist and transit‑transfer parking facilities are designated on a case‑by‑case basis; tourist hubs and park-and-ride interchanges are established in conjunction with external transport hubs, access corridors, and peripheral scenic areas. Public parking is integrated into mixed‑use developments around rail stations, while dedicated tourist parking lots are sited near core scenic areas.

(2) Diversified supply, with stringent controls. In addition to stand-alone public parking facilities, public parking is planned and regulated through various approaches—such as integration with public buildings, bus terminals, green spaces and plazas, and civil defense facilities—thereby effectively expanding supply.

(3) Comprehensive governance to enhance quality and efficiency. In areas with acute parking challenges, such as the old urban district, a “comprehensive governance” approach is adopted, leveraging measures including tapping underutilized off-street parking resources, promoting parking sharing, rectifying on-street parking, and implementing intelligent guidance, to achieve integrated management characterized by collaborative and refined administration.

Regarding the parking lot planning scheme, The plan includes the development of public parking facilities. There are 867 parking facilities, providing approximately 190,500 parking spaces. In the near term, plans call for the development of 83 public parking lots, adding roughly 22,600 parking spaces. In terms of parking planning and guidance in peripheral areas, regions such as Jimo, Jiaozhou, Pingdu, and Laixi should develop dedicated parking master plans, rationally delineate parking zones, implement differentiated supply and management measures, and appropriately regulate the scale and spatial distribution of public parking facilities, in accordance with… Guided by the principles of “controlling demand, optimizing supply, enhancing efficiency, and strengthening governance,” a comprehensive parking solution has been formulated, aligning with and adapting to central‑city parking provision, intelligent parking management, and related policies and measures. In addition, specialized studies will be conducted, including research on policies for the industrialization of parking, regionally differentiated supply‑and‑demand policies, parking informationization, and community‑based parking governance models.

In terms of safeguard measures, we will refine policies and regulations to foster a favorable industrial environment. ;Improve the parking management mechanism and strengthen coordinated planning and implementation; develop an implementation plan for short-term construction projects to advance parking facility development in high-demand areas; pilot comprehensive community governance to collaboratively address and precisely manage persistent parking challenges.

It is reported that the project is on public display in the exhibition hall of the Qingdao Planning Exhibition Center. (No. 78 Donghai East Road), as announced on the Qingdao Municipal Bureau of Natural Resources and Planning’s official website, the public notice period runs from October 14 to November 12, 2019. Members of the public may submit their comments via the Bureau’s website or through the on-site suggestion box. For inquiries, please call 0532-83893229.