The City of Fredericksburg Zoning Board of Adjustment on Wednesday approved a variance that reduces the required number of parking spaces for Create Healthy’s proposed wellness-center expansion.
The board voted to approve application CBA125-06, which asks to lower the calculated parking requirement from 197 spaces to 151 spaces. Staff and the applicant told the board the request reflects shared parking within a mixed-use facility and historical usage patterns that show the center’s lots have not reached full occupancy during typical operations.
Dawn Bourgeois, director of the wellness center, told the board the expansion responds to equipment and space constraints in the existing 30-year-old facility and is intended to improve programming and circulation rather than to double membership. “With varied programming, staggered usage, and the parking we already have, we believe we can successfully support this growth without having any additional parking spaces,” Bourgeois said.
A staff presentation explained that a straightforward application of the city’s per-use parking ratios produced a 197-space requirement based on the project’s mix of uses. Staff said that when the primary operation is indoor sports and recreation – pools, courts and similar facilities – a shared-parking approach using a 1 per 400-square-foot ratio yields a more appropriate demand estimate; that calculation produces roughly 168 spaces. Staff recommended the board consider the shared-use calculation and noted the city is concerned primarily about preserving the off-site / satellite parking lot that the center currently uses across Reuben Street.
Public commenters who identified themselves as long-time members supported the expansion and said they had not observed chronic parking shortages. Paul Seiden, a member, said he had “never, ever seen the parking lot being so loaded that you can never have a parking spot.” Another commenter, Steve Hawkins, said he supports the expansion and that his observations of usage patterns do not indicate regular capacity problems.
Board members sought legal and staff guidance about protecting the off-site Reuben Street lot, which the center uses in addition to on-site parking. The city attorney on the record said variances are typically attached to the land and are difficult to make conditional in perpetuity; staff recommended that if the applicant wants a long-term guarantee that off-site parking remain available, parties should document a recorded agreement during the forthcoming site-plan review or other property-recorded mechanism. The attorney added that if the off-site lot were severed and no longer available, the facility could fall out of compliance and lose the benefit of the variance.
After discussion the board approved the variance. The motion approved the reduction in required parking spaces and noted that the applicant must still complete site-plan review and any recordable agreements necessary to secure the off-site parking contemplated in the variance. The board and staff said they will run the proposed conditions and any voluntary property-recorded documents by the city attorney during site-plan review.