Interesting new legal doctrine argued in NYC that historically protected parking lots cannot be developed if there is an important public purpose for them, asserting that any public benefit is a “quid pro quo”. This is bad. https://universeodon.com/@Bman/109766725180560529
Good question!
The city was there long before cars and the public space required to store them ("parking" in the jargon).
Cars and parking are not very "historic", they're a 20th century anomaly. Unless you have #CarBrain, of course.
https://usa.streetsblog.org/2023/01/19/the-dangers-of-driving-are-way-more-normalized-than-we-think/
@AmberWavesofFlame NYC’s regs are the oldest and strangest, but my best understanding is that the parking lot is protected because something nearby has some kind of historic value