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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTIMBERLINE CHURCH P.U.D. - FINAL - 1-97A - CORRESPONDENCE - MEMO / P & Z BOARDFirst Saint Faith L.U.C. L.D.G.S. Christian Elizabeth Evangelical Church Seton Free Spaces 340 345 Occupancy 11018 11300 Ratio 1/3 1/3 1/3.76 1/4 N/A Minimum Range N/A N/A N/A N/A 1/3.5-1/5 ki a� J 3. .fH.4�cc� y/1�G1tivG ft-G�'zMt-Nr school or child care center shall be four (4) spaces per one thousand (1000) square feet of floor area, Note: Alternative parking ratios may be proposed and approved as per the alternative compliance parking standards contained in Section 3.2.2(K)(4). 140. There has recently been discussion about whether or not the Land Use Code should be amended to establish a maximum number of parking spaces allowed for certain institutional uses. This discussion has resulted primarily due to concerns about large parking lots for institutional uses (schools, places of worship, etc.) that are located in employment or industrial areas, and where no attempt has been made by the aplicant to make use of shared parking opportunities with adjacent developments. Currently, the code only regulates a minimum number of spaces required and does not establish a maximum number allowed. Therefore, it is possible that an institutional use may have a very large parking lot. In order to establish a maximum number of spaces allowed for certain institutional uses when shared parking opportunities exist, or when such uses are located adjacent to nonresidential uses, the following code change is proposed: 3.2.2(K)(1)(g) Parking Lots - Required Number of Spaces for Type of Use. pq �A, v, n '�M ': (g) Schools, Places of Worship orlAsembly and Child Care Centers: For each school, plaof worship or assembly and child care center, there shall bAne (1) parking space per four (4) seats in the auditorium or place of worship or assembly, or two (2) parking spaces per three (3) employees, or one (1) parking space per one thousand (1,000) square feet of floor area, whichever requires the greatest number of parking spaces. In the event that a school, place of worship or assembly, or child care center is located adjacent to uses such as retail, office, employment, or industrial uses, and where the mix of uses creates staggered peak periods of parking demand wherein the adjacent land owners have entered into a shared parking agreement, then the maximum number of parking spaces allowed for a place of worship or assembly shall be one (1) parking space per four (4) seats in the auditorium or place of worship or assembly, and the maximum number of parking spaces allowed for a school or child care center shall be three (3) spaces per one thousand (1000) square feet of floor area. When staggered peak periods of parking demand do not exist with adjacent uses such as retail, office, employment or industrial uses, then the maximum number of parking spaces allowed for a place of worship or assembly shall be one (1) parking space per three (3) seats in the auditorium or place of worship or assembly, and the maximum number of parking spaces allowed for a Parking Memo August 5, 1998 Page 2 Places of worship were moved to the minimum required section as a result of an analysis that led to a number of conclusions, such as: 1. Most places of worship are located along arterial roads, thus limiting the availability of adjacent on -street parking. 2. Such uses are typically not located adjacent to land uses that offer the availability of shared parking. 3. Due to the lack of opportunity for shared parking or significant amounts of on -street parking directly adjacent to the place of worship, an under -sized parking lot results in on -street parking occurring within several blocks of the use. This results in lengthy walking distances for church attendees and in congested street parking throughout residential neighborhoods. (Staff occasionally receives complaints from neighbors complaining that on Sundays there is no available street parking for their own guests because church -goers are taking up all the available spaces in the block). It is reasonable to expect the public (neighbors) to accept the inconvenience of spillover parking on an infrequent basis, but not on a weekly basis. 4. Walking a block or more in adverse weather conditions or on snow-covered sidewalks is not an acceptable pedestrian route for parents with young children, the elderly, and others. People don't have a choice of going to their destination at some other time or some other day when the weather is better, and this lack of convenient parking can discourage attendance or church growth. The alternative compliance parking section of the LUC was amended this last spring to allow a way for recreational and institutional use applicants to request approval of a plan that provides less parking than the minimum number required. (See Section 3.2.2(K)(4)c). The review criteria to allow such alternative compliance places special emphasis on concerns about spillover parking occurring in surrounding areas. MEMORANDUM DATE: August 5, 1998 TO: P & Z Board Members FROM: Peter Barnes RE: Institutional parking requirements There has recently been discussion about whether or not the Land Use Code (LUC) should be amended to establish a maximum number of parking spaces allowed for institutional uses. This discussion has resulted primarily due to concerns about large parking lots for places of worship. For example, is it appropriate for a 40,000 square foot church with a 1000 seat sanctuary to have a parking lot for 200 cars? This memo provides some background information regarding the LUC parking requirements and some conclusions about the parking impacts and needs of places of worship. The adopted version of the LUC contains a section that establishes the number of required or allowed parking spaces based on type of land use. Specifically, Section 3.2.2(K) establishes the minimum number of parking spaces required for residential and certain institutional uses, and establishes the maximum number of spaces allowed for nonresidential uses. In the case of residential and institutional uses, the code does not regulate the maximum number of spaces allowed, and in the case of nonresidential uses, the code does not regulate the minimum number of spaces required. Therefore, it is possible that a residential or institutional use may have a very large parking lot and that a nonresidential use may have no parking lot at all. An earlier draft version of the LUC had places of worship included in the "maximum allowed" parking table. When the draft version was reviewed by staff and others, an analysis of the parking table raised concerns about the parking requirements for a number of uses, including places of worship. The prior zoning code only contained minimum parking requirements for all uses. There were no maximums at all. For the most part, the draft parking table in the LUC simply used the prior code numbers and recommended guidelines and made them maximums, without any analysis being done to determine if the proposed maximums were realistic. As a result, a number of changes were made to the draft table which were adopted with the initial LUC adopting ordinance. One of the changes resulted in taking some institutional uses out of the "maximum" section, and putting them back in the "minimum" section, where they previously were under the prior code.