Parking structures are typically contemplated when there is a perceived need for more parking than can be accommodated in surface lots serving a building or activity center. Parking is an enormous consumer of land and resources. Office buildings in suburban settings typically require I sq. ft. of parking for every sq. ft. of leasable space, while shopping centers require as much as 1.5 sq. ft. of parking for every leasable sq. ft. Parking structures are expensive to own and operate; costing up to five times as much as surface parking. Revenue from parking, when there is any, only rarely pays for the cost of structured parking. Conversely, surface parking is usually not the highest and best use of a parcel of land. Parking structures allow denser development or expansion of an existing land use that otherwise would not be possible. At the start of the new millennium, the realization is slowly dawning that suburban development as practised in the second half of the twentieth century is often not beneficial to the community.