A city board takes up changes to Boston's decades-old parking freezes on Wednesday

Boston's Air Pollution Control Commission will meet online Wednesday, Nov. 4, at 2:30 p.m. to discuss, and possibly vote on, whether to open a public comment period on proposed changes to how it issues permits under the city's three parking freezes: Downtown, South Boston and East Boston (public notice).

The freezes cap how many parking spaces can exist in parts of the city where traffic and development pressure are highest. Changes to the rules could affect developers, garage owners, employers and residents who live next to new projects.

What the parking freezes are

The freezes are part of the state's plan for meeting federal Clean Air Act standards, according to the commission's parking freeze page. Each works differently:

• Downtown. Created in 1976, with rules approved in 1978. It caps public commercial parking at 35,556 spaces. Spaces reserved for a building's own employees, customers and guests do not count toward the cap but still need a permit. Residential spaces are excluded. The "bank" of spaces still available for new permits held 4,504.
• South Boston. Created in 1993 as an air quality measure for the Central Artery/Tunnel project, with permits beginning in 2004. It caps off-street parking at 29,717 spaces. The bank held 2,366, and another 436 spaces approved through permit changes will come out of it as projects get certificates of occupancy. Lots in the Piers zone must hold 20% of spaces for drivers arriving after 9:30 a.m.
• East Boston. Created in 1989 to limit park-and-fly and rental car parking, alongside a separate freeze at Logan Airport. Its bank is empty, and the commission is not accepting new applications.

The bank figures are as of July 21, 2026, according to the page. All permits must be renewed every July 1.

The notice does not describe the proposed changes. It says the Nov. 4 vote is only on whether to open public comment, which means the changes themselves would come later.

What our records add

The commission is a city board, and its parking freeze rules do not go to the City Council. But several council proposals deal with parking in the same neighborhoods, and none has reached a vote.

• Residential parking minimums. City Councilors Sharon Durkan and Henry Santana (at-large) filed a zoning text amendment to remove minimum parking requirements for new residential development (docket 0809). The Planning, Development and Transportation Committee held a hearing June 4 (meeting page). It has been in committee 200 days since referral. The draft amendment would also strike a zoning provision that refers to limits under a state or federal parking freeze. An earlier hearing order on the same idea (docket 0173) has waited since Jan. 28.
• South Boston resident parking. City Councilor Ed Flynn filed orders for hearings on carrying out a seven-nights-a-week "Resident Parking Only" policy in South Boston (docket 1848) and on building a parking garage on the city's municipal lot on West Broadway (docket 1849). Both went to the City Services Committee on Sept. 30.
• Parking benefit districts. City Councilor Enrique Pepén filed an order for a hearing on parking benefit districts, a model in which parking revenue is typically spent in the area where it is collected (docket 0401). It has waited 249 days.

How to take part

The meeting is virtual only. The public can join on Zoom or by phone, or send written comments to apcc@boston.gov, according to the notice. If the commission opens a comment period, the proposed rules would be posted for review before any final vote.