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Home My WebLink AboutOB 3 PARKING STAND'S 10-21-85 OLD BUSINESS Inter Corn DATE: October 21, 1985 TO: FROM: SU EBJ ECT: HONORABLE FIAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL CO. UNITY DEVELOPMENT DEPARTt4ENT COf~I~ERCIAL OFFICE PARKING STANDARDS RECOI~IENDED ACTION: The Planning Commission has requested that the City Council advertise for a zone amendment to the parking standards for professional offices. BACKGROUND: Earlier this year, staff submitted a report to the City Council analyzing the commercial office standards and recommending applicable changes. Discussions from the Council raised the question if there should be a different parking standard for projects over 10,000 square feet. Specifically, should the number of spaces per 1,000 square feet be less restrictive for larger office buildings. DISCUSSION: In evaluating the proposal of a split parking standard based on square footage, there should be some correlation between parking impact and larger office buildings to allow for an "economy of scale" with the larger buildings. Staff utilized a study done by Internation Parking Design {IPD) and another study by the City of Irvine to test this proposal. The 1rD study draws a distinction between low density urban areas and high density urban areas. The report states that high density areas require less parking due to several factors, such as more walk-tn and drop off, and less visitor parking due to more interaction from adjoining offices. Further, better public transportation in a higher density area would satisfy some of the parking demand. Conversely, a lower density area would require more parking because this area lacks the intense use qualities of the higher density area. Tustin can be considered a low density urban area, and 1980 census data supports some of the statements of the IPD study. Over 80% of workers drive their own vehicle alone to work, with 14% carpooling to work with a total of two passengers in the car. That leaves 6% who carpool with three or more passengers. Further, public transportation does not make much of an impact, with only 1.9% of the total workers utilizing public transit as a means to travel to work. Countywide, the total percentage of workers utilizing public transit is 2.06%, slightly higher than Tustin. It would appear from these data, that there would be no "economy in scale", since Tustin does not have any of the features that could promote less parking spaces for more square footage in a single project. City Council Report Commercial Parking Standards page two The City of Irvine recently prepared a comprehensive study regarding parking standards, of which office parking standards was one aspect. Their standard is. one space per 250 square feet, with the parking standard changing to one per 500 square feet for on-site parking facilities containing 1,000 or more parking spaces. The report recommended that the parking split after 1,000 or more spaces be dropped since there was no "economy of scale" in parking demand for such uses. The report went on to say that although some large firms have extensive rideshare programs, large buildings do not always contain only large firms. A large building could conceivably house numerous small to medium sized firms, none of which have a rideshare program. The report recommended that all offices be parked at the one space per 250 square feet ratio, with any reductions pursued and justified through the administrative relte~ provision. Other cities that. include a split parking standard provide little direction to develop a consistent standard. The split in parking standards occurs along a range between 20,000 to 250,000 square feet. In most cases, the parking standard is less restrictive (from 1/250 to 1/500), but in two cases the standard becomes more restrictive after the split (from 1/300 to 1/200). From these data, staff would recommend that the zone amendment to a 1/250 square foot standard for .all office buildings be considered and that it be applied regardless of size. Further, staff recognizes that under some cases a reduction could be considered, and that an applicant could apply for a use permit and pursue any reduction through this process. Senior Planner EK:do Communily Developmenl Deparlmenl Planning Commission DATE: FEBRUARY 25, 198S SUBJECT: CI))~4ERCIAL OFFICE PAR~ING S'~ANDAJ~OS BACKGROUND: The City Council at its meeting on December 18, 1984 directed staff to seek Planning Commission input and study present City parking requirements for commercial zones in the City. Specifically, MaYOr Kennedy wanted the Planning Commission to recommend changes as necessary to the required number of spaces for commercial office projects. Staff prepared a staff report for the January 28, I985 Planning Commission, outlined the request of the Mayor and requesting input from the Commissioners. The Planning Commission agreed wi th the intent of study and requested staff to proceed. DISCUSSION: Currently, the City of Tustin Zoning Code has three separate parking standards for commercial offices, distributed over several different zones. The majority of the Citx, (PR, C-1, C-2, CG), has a standard of one space for each 300 square feet of gross floor area. This encompasses all floor area under an enclosed roof, and includes aisles, stairs, elevator shafts and restrooms. The second standard is the Irvine Industrial Complex, Tustin located in the Myford and Walnut area, and has a requirement of one space for each 250 square feet of gross floor area. The third standard is a part of the Planned Community Regulations for the Irvine Industrial Complex west of Redhill Avenue, between Warner and Valencia, and has a requirement of three parking spaces for each 1,000 square feet of gross floor area. In past years, the requirement of one space for each 300 gross square feet has been intrepreted as any area within walls and under a roof. Exterior staircases and walkways were not counted, although if they contained within the structure, they were accounted for as gross square footage. Consequently, developers planned their office buildings with open interior atriums, outside stairs and aisleways to avoid having the area counted for as parking. Maybe not so coincidentally, this City is well known for open air atriums in its garden style office buildings. Even with this interpretation of what constitutes gross square footage and its subsequent application, the standard of 1/300 is usually adequate for most office uses, but not all. Any office use that is labor intensity, such as insurance agencies, personnel agencies, stockbrokers, title insurance, will usually exceed the city's requirement. For example,the Fireman's Fund building k",,,,.,. Corn muniLv Developmem Depar~mem ~/ Planning Commission Report Parking Standards page two on Seventeenth Street supplied parking at 1/250 even though the requirement was 1/300, primarily because they knew our standard was not sufficient to supply enough parking. The trend in other cities in Orange County appears to be toward a 1/250 standard. A parking study done by International Parking Design, Inc. surveyed fourteen cities in Orange County, with eleven of these cities having at least a 1/250 standard. An analysis prepared by the firms indicated that a low density urban office building should, based upon use, provide parking between 3/1000 to 5/1000 gross square footage. The report went on to say that although the 3/1000 standard would not be sufficient for some users, such as insurance firms, the uniform application of a 5/1000 standard would severly penalize the low to moderate floor density user, such as a corporate headquarters. It appears from the research that most of the surveyed cities in Orange County felt a 1/250 standard was a suitable median point. One of the negative aspects of this proposed change is the magnitude of non-conforming uses it will create. With the exception of medical offices, nearly all of the professional offices in the city were developed at the 1/300 standard. All of these offices will be frozen at their current square footage, and will not be able to expand without providing parking at the 1/250 standard for the entire building. This impact will not be a major concern since most offices originally developed at the maximum the site would allow, and the City receives few requests to expand square footage. The primary impact will be from structures that are destroyed and those few offices that are able to expand their square footage. Staff would recommend that any change to the parking requirements be applied to all zones in the city that permit professional offices. RECO~ENDED ACTION: Staff recommends that the Planning Commission request the City Council to advertise for a zone amendment to the parking standards for professional offices. Senior Planner EK:do Community Developmen[ Oepartrnen~