In Irkutsk, 47 construction sites were analyzed for parking availability and it was found that not all developers meet the standards, especially shopping centers. Authorities propose stricter requirements for parking spaces in new buildings and are already planning a network of underground and multilevel parking lots to ease downtown traffic. Why parking remains a sharp issue in Irkutsk and which sites have already been reserved for parking, in the report.

The Committee on Urban Planning Policy of the Irkutsk city administration analyzed 47 construction projects for the presence of parking spaces, including 9 shopping centers. According to regulations, any retail outlet with an area of 100 square meters must have at least 5 parking spaces. It turns out that even the smallest pavilion requires a small parking lot. But far from all entrepreneurs comply with these rules.
Problems with parking spaces in residential areas are addressed through the construction of built-in, underground, and above-ground parking lots. This trend is especially characteristic of new developments in the Oktyabrsky District, and the number of parking spaces in the construction projects of the Municipal Unitary Enterprise UKS of Irkutsk is generally higher than the average figures of commercial developers; thus, in the building on Zhukov Street (Solnechny microdistrict), the total parking area is 5.5 thousand m2 instead of the required 2.3 thousand m2. Parking lots are arranged "with a reserve" in block sections on Nizhnyaya Lisikha (4.1 thousand m2), buildings in Solnechny (6.4 thousand m2), and the residential complex "Krylaty" (5.6 thousand m2). The residential complex with the largest number of parking spaces ever built in Irkutsk will for a long time remain the comprehensive project of the 5th phase of the seventh microdistrict in Novo-Lenino, which is being built under contract for the Municipal Unitary Enterprise UKS of Irkutsk. Nevertheless, Irkutsk Mayor Vladimir Yakubovsky and other members of the highest administrative committee proposed increasing the standards for parking spaces based on the number of apartments in a residential complex. In the mayor's opinion, ideally at least 2 parking spaces should be reserved for each apartment in a modern new building.
Therefore, last year the city administration opened a free daytime parking lot for three hundred cars in the area of the former "Shanghai." Today it is easy to park here - the market is closed on Mondays and there is no particular influx of traffic. But usually there is a sign here saying "No spaces available." Officials are aware of the parking problem. There are plans to build 12 underground multi-level parking facilities. Ivan Khomutinnikov, chairman of the Committee on Urban Planning Policy of the Irkutsk city administration: "Now projects that do not provide for the construction of such parking facilities are simply not approved. Because we all see that the city is overcrowded, especially its central part. Therefore, we assume that it will be necessary both to demolish dilapidated housing stock that has no historical value and to build these parking facilities there."
Specialized buildings with multi-level parking inside are also included in the development plans of other districts of the city, where sites have been reserved: in the Pervomaisky microdistrict (213 parking spaces), on Yamskaya Street (a 6-story parking facility for 580 cars), and on Sibirskaya Street (82 parking spaces).
Transport innovations are connected with the implementation of the strategy of the master plan of the city of Irkutsk to reduce the burden of transit traffic on the historic center of the city. For this purpose, it is also planned to place intercity bus stops at the entrances to Irkutsk (in the Kachug, Angarsk, and Shelekhov directions). Entry of private vehicles into the city center will be regulated - at the boundary of the "large transport ring," marked in the development plan of the Right Bank District, parking lots are planned, and within the historic center public transport will become the priority. The Committee on Urban Planning Policy has reserved land plots for parking facilities along the route of the main streets of the new Angara Bridge: in the block of Provianskaya - Trillissera - Kommunisticheskaya Streets, and in the block of Piskunova - Sedova - Kommunisticheskaya - 4th Sovetskaya Streets. A multi-level parking facility will appear on the territory of the planned shopping center "Fortuna City Mall" (K. Marx - Oktyabrskoy Revolyutsii). Covered multi-level parking facilities are also proposed for Ryabikov Boulevard (the "Ruchey" market) and the intersection of Mukhina and Yakobi Streets, near the "Chaika" cinema, and in Akademgorodok. On Rosa Luxemburg Street, parking will be organized just as on Lermontov Street in the area of IrSTU - on an open fenced site inside the avenue.
At best, underground parking facilities will appear in Irkutsk in three years. For now, these projects are only at the approval stage. But even this will not solve Irkutsk's transport problem. Currently, almost 12 thousand cars come into the city center every day. And this number grows every year. Alexander Mikhailov, developer of the comprehensive road traffic management scheme for Irkutsk: "The peculiarity of our city is that it lacks retail infrastructure - that is, this influx into the city center is due to the fact that in other districts there are simply not enough retail and cultural service facilities."