Parking Lots and Trees

The City's Unified Development Code, enacted in November 2010, addresses these issues in great detail. You may peruse the parking standards in Section 50-24, wherein reductions in the required number of spaces are allotted to those facilities with ready access to public transit. 

You may then proceed to section 50-25 where you will be informed that new parking lots shall have a minimum of 10-15 percent of the area landscaped, and that parking areas shall be planned to be a minimum of 30 percent shaded by mature tree canopy.

All this is slowly moving us toward less hard surface and more urban trees. It will take a while to repair 80 years of "damage" though. After all, the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. 

To conclude with a political comment, as frustrating as regulation can be, sometimes it results in a better end. I think the UDC's landscaping provisions are pointing us that way.

I was heartened by the parking plan at Whole Foods, via the News Tribune:

Construction Zone: Whole Foods Co-op in Duluth expands parking lot