The Independence City Council voted to adopt an ordinance amending several sections of the city development code to narrow how on-street parking counts toward required parking in the downtown mixed-use and riverfront zones and to allow angled parking as a design option.

Council adopted Council Bill 2024-09, amending Independence Development Code subchapters 33 (mixed-use pedestrian-friendly commercial), 34 (downtown riverfront), 54 (buffering/screening/landscape), and 73 (parking), and declared an effective date. The ordinance will be filed as ordinance number 1620.

The change limits the use of on-street parking counts specifically to the mixed-use district and downtown riverfront zone and prevents counting on-street spaces on Main Street, Monmouth Street and C Street toward a site’s required parking. The amendment also creates a process by which a developer may reconfigure a street to include angled parking and count those angled spaces toward a project’s parking total. Staff said the restrictions respond to the downtown parking study and are intended to protect the city’s highest-occupancy corridors.

Planning staff reviewed the specific code references for council: several edits appear in subchapter 73 (notably sections labeled in the packet as 73020(b)(2) and (b)(3)) and supporting language on pages cited in the council packet. Staff noted the change preserves existing flexibility elsewhere in the code — for example, retaining a one-space-per-residential-unit baseline for mixed-use buildings while encouraging other methods of flexibility through landscaping and site design standards in the downtown riverfront zone.

Council discussion included a question about whether the one-space standard for residential units in mixed-use buildings could be scaled by unit size; staff said the city retained the existing one-space-per-unit standard and preferred to offer flexibility through alternate means such as adjustments to landscaping requirements and lot layout rather than change the per-unit baseline. Council also asked whether former driveways on Second Street could be reclassified as on-street spaces; staff said such changes are operational and could be implemented by painting and striping under city authority.

Mayor Kate Swartzler and councilors recorded their approvals during the roll call. The motion to adopt passed on the council floor. Staff said the measure focuses the reduced-count allowance to core downtown blocks and implements the angled-parking option as a site-design alternative.

The ordinance’s changes take effect on the date specified in the final ordinance paperwork; staff will publish the adopted code updates and notify the planning and building communities of the specific section edits and the pages in the official packet where the amended language appears.

Votes at a glance: Ordinance (Council Bill 2024-09) — adopted; ordinance number 1620.