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HomeMy WebLinkAboutRPT 3 COMM OFFICE PKG 03-18-85DATE: NARCH 18, 1985 REPORTS NO. 3 3-18-85 Inter- Corn TO: FROM: SUBJECT: HONORABLE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS COFIHIJNITY DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT COMMERCIAL OFFICE PARKING STANDARD BACKGROUND: The City Council at its meeting on December 18, 1984 directed staff to seek Planning Commission input and study present City policy requirements for commercial zones in the City. Staff prepared a'preliminary staff report for the January 28, 1985 Planning Commission meeting, outlining the request of the Council and requesting input from the Commissioners. Staff presented its analysis at the February 25, 1985 Planning Commission meeting. Staff recommended that the Commissioners provide input and subsequently request that the City Council advertise for an amendment to the zoning code for parking standards for professional offices. The Commissioners felt that a change to the standards was needed, and accepted the recommendation of staff. It was further agreed that the amendment should be to a 1/250 gross square foot standard. DISCUSSION: The Planning Commission staff report of February 25, 1985 has been enclosed for your review. If the City Council accepts the recommendation of the Planning Commission and authorizes staff to advertise for an amendment to the Zoning Ordinance, then staff would recommend that the amendment encompass all zones that allow professional offices. Further, staff would recommend that the amendment be to a 1/250 gross square foot standard. RECOIqMENDED ACTION: Staff recommends that the City Council accept the recommendation of the Planning Commission and advertise for an amendment to the Zoning Ordinance, revising the parking standards of professional office to a 1/250 gross square foot standard. Enclosure: Planning Commission Staff Report 2/25/85 EMK:pef DATE: FEBRUARY 25, 1985 SUBJECT: COI~RCIAL OFFICE PARKING STANDARDS 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, 1985 Planning Commission, outlined the request of the Mayor and requesting input from the Commissioners. The Planning Commission agreed with 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 Citg, (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 Community DeVelopment Department Planntng Commissfon 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. RECOfqlqENDED ACTIO#: 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 Development Department