The parking-space dispute at Meizheng Huayuan in Hangzhou has been ongoing for more than five months.
In August 2019, following the arrival of a new property management company, parking disputes escalated. In this aging residential community built in 1999, 927 residents clashed over just over 500 parking spaces, prompting a steady stream of complaints to the homeowners’ committee and repeated calls to the local police station. Under the mediation of the community, 30 representatives from all stakeholder groups formed an ad hoc parking‑solution task force, convening nearly weekly—yet a viable new parking plan remains under discussion.
Such disputes are a common sight in Hangzhou. In recent years, just the cases reported by this newspaper’s reporters include older residential neighborhoods like Liushui Xiyuan, Zhijie Tan Lane, Jiangcun Huayuan, and Chaohui District 4. Roadways that resemble a “Huarong Path” puzzle, fire lanes blocked by unauthorized parking, and ubiquitous wheel locks have all become the norm for parking in these aging communities.
In China’s aging residential neighborhoods, where resources are already stretched thin, the difficulty of finding parking has become a widespread problem. How to address it is a real challenge.
Parking spaces that fail to keep pace with the times
“As the number of vehicles continues to rise, difficulties and disorder in parking have become a major concern for car owners, particularly in older residential neighborhoods where inadequate parking facilities and indiscriminate parking—blocking accessways—are especially acute.” At the 2019 Two Sessions in Hangzhou, “alleviating parking challenges” once again emerged as a key issue.
According to joint statistics from Hangzhou’s urban management and traffic police departments, the city’s total parking spaces—including on-street spots, public parking garage spaces, publicly accessible spaces at shopping malls and office buildings, and residential‑area parking—amount to roughly 740,000. Meanwhile, by the end of 2018, the number of private vehicles in Hangzhou had exceeded 2 million, highlighting a substantial gap between supply and demand.
A major reason for the shortage of parking spaces in older residential communities is the underestimation, at the time, of the explosive growth in car ownership, coupled with the delayed updating of relevant planning and allocation standards. Taking parking provision for residential buildings as an example, according to the “Regulations on the Provision of Public Service Facilities in Urban Residential Areas of Hangzhou,” promulgated in 2004, residences under 70 square meters are allocated only 0.25 parking spaces per unit, while only units ranging from 150 to 200 square meters receive one parking space.
Even under the newly issued “Detailed Implementation Rules for the Provision of Motor Vehicle Parking Spaces in Urban Construction Projects in Hangzhou (Trial)” in 2009, residences with a floor area between 60 and 90 square meters were required to provide only 0.7 parking spaces. In an interview that year, the Hangzhou Parking Administration stated that this standard was among the highest nationwide, yet it still fell short of keeping pace with the rapid growth in private vehicle ownership.
The current parking situation in a residential community in Hangzhou
Clarifying property rights is a crucial prerequisite.
Meizheng Huayuan, the residential complex at the center of this dispute, is a commodity‑housing development completed in 1999. At the time of its construction, no parking spaces were included in the original master plan. The community initially designated 247 legal parking spots, which were just sufficient for the residents’ needs. However, as the number of vehicles in the community continued to grow, even after the property management allocated an additional roughly 300 parking spaces to homeowners, supply still fell far short of demand.
According to residents of the community, the previous source of contention among homeowners revolved around whether parking spaces should be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis or assigned as permanent, designated spots. Under Article 74 of the Property Law, within a residential development, parking spaces and garages planned for vehicle storage must first meet the needs of the property owners. The ownership of such spaces and garages is determined by agreement among the parties through sale, gratuitous transfer, or lease. Any parking space occupying roads or other areas jointly owned by the property owners shall be deemed jointly owned by all owners. However, the legal provisions do not provide clear guidance on the allocation of parking spaces in older residential communities, where the situation is often complex.
Shenzhen’s Jingzhou Building residential community is a prime example. Shenzhen has the highest vehicle density of any city in China, with more than 500 motor vehicles per kilometer of road, and Jingzhou Building, located in the bustling city center, previously suffered from severe parking chaos. According to Zou Jiajian, the former chairman of the owners’ committee, as early as 2001, Jingzhou Building had obtained a court ruling confirming that parking spaces are jointly owned by all residents.
“This is the key prerequisite for effectively resolving our parking issues.” After 2015, the community owners’ committee passed a resolution to issue monthly parking passes to car‑owning residents. To obtain such a pass, owners were required to present their property ownership certificate, ID card, and vehicle registration. For those residents who still struggled to find parking, the committee then coordinated with the nearby Shenzhen Commercial Daily newspaper, enabling the two entities to implement staggered parking schedules. In this way, the parking difficulties at Jingzhou Building were finally resolved.
The current parking situation in a residential community in Hangzhou
“Making a dojo out of a screw shell”
The “staggered parking” approach has been promoted in Hangzhou since 2008, with as many as 100-plus residential communities and nearly 200 enterprises participating at its peak, utilizing close to 10,000 parking spaces. The Jiulian Community in western Hangzhou was among the city’s earliest adopters of staggered parking; back in 2008, it reached an agreement with a nearby provincial-level institution to implement morning‑evening staggered parking. However, less than a year after implementation, Jiulian—once held up as a model for others—had to suspend the policy. The reasons were substantial: the management challenges proved too great, and there were also underlying safety concerns, leaving both the community and the institution with considerable reservations.
As a result, over the past two years, many residential communities have been making the most of limited space, striving to maximize parking capacity within their confines. Since last year, more than a dozen provinces and municipalities across China—including Zhejiang and Henan—have explicitly prioritized the addition of parking spaces in their renovation plans for older neighborhoods. For instance, the “Implementation Plan for the Comprehensive Renovation and Upgrading of Old Residential Communities in Hangzhou,” released in August 2019, explicitly states that existing marginal plots, scattered parcels, and fragmented land can be redeveloped to create space for micro‑circulation on internal roads and for parking facilities.
In fact, many residential communities across the country have adopted a “micro‑circulation” approach: after re‑planning roads, green spaces, and other areas, they have repurposed small plots of land and corner lots to add parking spaces. In the Lüyijū Community in Hefei, Anhui, by paving over portions of green space, the number of permanent parking spots has increased from fewer than 500 to 1,100, effectively alleviating the community’s parking shortage.
Many older residential communities have also created additional space by building multi‑level parking garages. In Guanfengting Subdistrict, Gulou District, Fuzhou, a new underground smart multi‑storey parking facility has been constructed, with a net depth of about 25 meters and seven levels, each capable of accommodating 12 vehicles, for a total of 84 parking spaces. Meanwhile, the parking garage’s entrance occupies less than 20 square meters.
However, the main challenge in constructing automated parking structures lies in their high cost. Estimates indicate that each parking space in such facilities costs anywhere from RMB 50,000 to RMB 200,000 on average, and some already‑built systems require roughly 30 years to recoup their investment. “Without commercial development, these costs are simply unaffordable,” one official remarked. Earlier, when a reporter interviewed relevant officials in Changsha, they responded that relying solely on government funding would place enormous fiscal pressure on the city.
Moreover, even when it comes to installing multi‑storey parking structures in older residential neighborhoods, residents’ opinions are often far from unanimous. In recent years, the Bafang Community in Yuelu District, Changsha, Hunan, sought to convert a small patch of green space into a government‑funded multi‑storey parking facility; however, the proposal was ultimately rejected by residents due to concerns about reduced natural light and damage to the landscaping.
The current parking situation in a residential community in Hangzhou
Is “Internet Plus” useful?
In recent years, with the adoption of big data and other technologies, many older residential communities have begun integrating “Internet Plus” with parking‑space management.
In 2016, the Jielian Community in Hangzhou’s Jianggan District launched big‑data‑driven management. Each vehicle in the community has a unique QR code affixed to its windshield; a simple scan reveals the license plate number, phone number, address, and other details. Paired with the QR code, residents can use the “Parking Space Update” feature in a mobile app to quickly locate available parking spots. Following the implementation of this big‑data system, the community saw traffic flow improve by 100% year over year, while incidents such as vehicle collisions and scrapes dropped by 90% compared with the previous year.
How can parking problems be addressed in older residential communities? Yang Jianhua, president of the Zhejiang Provincial Sociological Society, believes that a multi‑spatial, multi‑perspective approach is needed, with solutions tailored to each community’s specific circumstances.
He stated that, first, as part of the renovation of certain older residential communities, parking issues should be integrated into urban planning and design. For older neighborhoods currently not slated for redevelopment, existing internal spaces can be fully leveraged—“provided that a minimum amount of green space is preserved.” Second, the underground spaces of nearby public facilities or institutions—such as government offices or schools—could be utilized. Planning authorities might consider developing dedicated parking garages beneath these large public buildings, “on the condition that building safety is ensured, which would require relevant departments to conduct thorough assessments and feasibility studies.” In addition, multi‑level parking structures could further enhance land‑use efficiency.
Yang Jianhua also suggested that large supermarkets or institutions with parking lots near older residential neighborhoods could open their parking facilities after work hours, allowing both public and private vehicles to park—provided they leave before the start of the next business day.
“This also requires taking citizens’ trustworthiness into account,” said Yang Jianhua. “For drivers who struggle to find parking, if a parking space is available to help them in an emergency, they should be even more diligent in honoring the agreed-upon terms.”
