At the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission headquarters in Virginia, officials knew a crumbling asphalt parking lot was in dire need of repair. But instead of replacing that section with darker blacktop, the group opted for an alternative.
The new parking lot, completed last year, features porous concrete panels and areas planted with native plants and recycled materials to keep the site cool and less prone to flooding.
Cities and other organizations across the United States are using alternatives to traditional asphalt sites to beat the heat and control water runoff, especially as climate change worsens.
Jill Sunderland, the commission’s senior water resources planner, said the new panels would allow “rain to penetrate faster than it would puddle and sit on the surface.”
“You’ve probably noticed it’s getting cooler,” Sunderland added. “You can actually see the difference. Needless to say, it’s more appealing.”
This project is one example of how dozens of cities and other organizations across the United States are using alternatives to traditional asphalt sites to beat the heat and control water runoff. Especially as climate change worsens.
The city of New Orleans is requested by the Public Works Department Where practical, use permeable pavers on grounds and other spaces. In Indianapolis, Newfield Art Museum reborn One parking lot incorporates a bioretention rain garden, and the other has a permeable grid in place of traditional blacktop. in denver Depaving a Greener Denver Initiative is attempting to cover the city’s parking lots and other impermeable surfaces.
Another way cities can reduce pavement is by eliminating regulations that require new residential and commercial buildings to have a minimum number of parking spaces. Buffalo, New York. Austin, Texas. Minneapolis is one of the cities that has changed these policies in recent years.
Meanwhile, asphalt industry representatives, while touting the material’s advances, warn that parking lot owners need to carefully consider the durability of non-asphalt alternatives.
Here we present various alternatives to traditional lots.
Cooling technology and shading
People walk through a solar panel parking lot near Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia on September 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum, File)
People walk through a solar panel parking lot near Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia on September 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum, File)
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Adam Millard Ball, a professor of urban planning at UCLA, said parking lots take up more than a quarter of the land in some downtowns, and studies show more than a third of parking spaces can be empty at any given time. Many sites are infrequently used, such as sports arenas, shopping malls, and offices. That’s why some organizations are offering grants to cities and businesses to replace or retrofit hardscape parking lots, which have traditionally been made of asphalt.
Reflective surface coatings or treatments used Located in the Pacoima area of Los Angeleswhich acts like a paint that prevents the ground from absorbing a lot of heat.
Incorporating plants also helps regulate temperature by absorbing energy and releasing moisture.
Sacramento, Californiarequires parking developers to plant enough trees to shade half of the lot within 15 years of construction. Washington DC and Seattle has green space requirements Landscaping, especially for new developments. some cities Take advantage of solar panel installation As a shade structure.
Without these fixes, dark pavement traps heat and can increase temperatures by as much as 20 degrees. Usually that heat builds up during the day.
The heat spreads, contributing to the so-called urban heat island effect, said Vincent Cotron, an urban forestry extension educator at Pennsylvania State University. Warmer regions often use more energy as people become more dependent on air conditioning to stay cool. These AC units push hot air back outside.
stormwater runoff solutions
Other alternatives are aimed at solving problems that occur when impermeable pavement prevents rainwater from penetrating into the ground. When water flows off a paved surface, it can carry pollutants such as oil and heavy metals into nearby waterways, Cotrone said.
Grate paving, which is more advanced than gravel, allows grass to grow. These, and interlocking pavers that create spaces between individual units, allow rainwater to be filtered. Other permeable materials used for spill control include stone beds, brick pavers, or honeycomb-style structures.
The Hampton Roads Planning District Commission uses stamped, grooved concrete boundaries so that when stormwater runoff flows from traditional concrete to porous concrete, it is trapped instead of becoming clogged with sediment and requiring maintenance.
Long channels of vegetation known as bioswales and sunken areas known as rain gardens use sand, soil and vegetation to filter pollutants from rainwater before it reaches streams and sewers.
At the Newfields Museum in Indianapolis, one parking lot has a rain garden and the overflow parking lot uses recycled plastic grid paving.
“This worked out really well for us because we don’t park in that lot every day,” said Jonathan Wright, the garden’s director. “Why does it have to be a non-breathable, non-permeable asphalt when you only need to use 10%?”
cost of alternative materials
Ronnie Jeffries paints the parking lot at the School of Science, Arts and Entrepreneurship to make it more reflective and cooler in Mableton, Ga., Sept. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart, File)
Ronnie Jeffries paints the parking lot at the School of Science, Arts and Entrepreneurship to make it more reflective and cooler in Mableton, Ga., Sept. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart, File)
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Because using alternative materials can result in higher initial costs, experts said it’s important for owners to conduct a cost analysis that considers other benefits over the lifetime of the parking lot.
“If we just repaved it with asphalt, it would have been a lot cheaper,” Sunderland said of the Virginia project. “It’s more expensive initially, but you get more longevity.”
Buzz Powell, technical director of the Asphalt Pavement Alliance, a national federation of industry groups, said asphalt is more versatile and designed to handle high-traffic roads better than some newer alternatives, and new pavements may eventually need repair.
“I think we need to be very careful when implementing alternative systems to fully understand the lifecycle impact,” Powell said. “Some things are very sexy on the front end and look great on paper, but when you drive them around in a garbage truck, they can’t handle the stress and strain.”
Asphalt can be installed in different thicknesses depending on different needs, and porous asphalt is becoming increasingly popular. He said it could be easier to repair, and all options would have trade-offs in terms of environmental impact, longevity and maintenance, depending on usage.
“My focus is 100% on making asphalt better,” he added. “Making better asphalt means better material mixing, better structural pavement design, and better pavement preservation.”
Some experts who support the alternative worry that budget-constrained cities interested in redoing their parking lots won’t be able to raise the money.
“We’re heading in the right direction, but at the same time, we only have acres and acres of pitch-black parking lots that sit there and age and get hot again,” Cotron said. “And we don’t have the money to renovate them.”
But ultimately, improving the way parking lots are built or reducing the space they take up overall can solve multiple challenges at once, from heat to water quality and related inequality issues.
“The reality is that if one city just changes its surfaces, it won’t have a huge impact,” said Greg Katz, founder of the Smart Surfaces Coalition. “But once cities can understand the exact scale of the benefit, it becomes intuitive in a way.”
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