Suffolk planning staff proposes truck-stop parking and design rules to reduce roadside parking

City planning staff told Suffolk City Council on June 4 that a proposed amendment to the Unified Development Ordinance would create minimum on-site parking requirements and design standards for truck stops and travel plazas.

Director of Planning and Community Development Kevin Wine said the change would replace the existing, pump-based definition with a broader definition: any site that provides fueling for tractor‑trailers would be treated as a truck stop for regulation purposes. The draft also scales required on-site tractor‑trailer parking according to fueling lanes and whether a truck scale is present.

Wine said the revised approach aims to reduce the common problem of trucks parking on adjacent private property and residential streets when sites do not provide sufficient on-site parking.

Parking requirements proposed (summary)

• 3 or fewer truck fueling lanes, no truck scale: 4 truck parking spaces per fueling lane.

• 3 or fewer truck fueling lanes, with a truck scale: 6 truck parking spaces per fueling lane.

• 3 or more truck fueling lanes, no truck scale: 5 truck parking spaces per fueling lane.

• 3 or more truck fueling lanes, with a truck scale: 10 truck parking spaces per fueling lane.

In addition to parking minimums, the proposed amendment would require that truck parking areas be accessible whenever the facility is open, that the site plan include an autocontrol/turning exhibit to show safe maneuvering, and that landscape buffer screening be placed on the exterior side of the perimeter fence where the facility abuts public or residential property. Staff also proposes that tractor‑trailer parking be physically separated from passenger vehicle parking and that overnight tractor‑trailer parking on site be by the facility operator’s consent.

Why it matters: Site visits and regional examples shown to council — including Love’s and Pilot travel plazas on Route 58 and a recently built Prince George facility — demonstrated hundreds of on-site truck parking spaces at full occupancy. Staff said those examples informed the proposed ratios.

Implementation and enforcement

Wine said the standards would apply to new and expanded sites; existing developed sites would not be retroactively required to meet the new standards unless they submit new site plans or expand. He noted the Holland Road Royal Farms site was developed under an earlier conditional use permit and that a separate adjacent parcel’s site plan for overflow parking has site plan approval but had not yet been constructed.

Council members raised enforcement and regional‑capacity questions and asked whether the city should pursue a municipally run or leased parking solution for trucks in northern Suffolk. Wine and the city manager said most truck‑parking facilities are privately developed and suggested council could discuss a public‑sector option through the capital improvements process or by leasing land, but that no developer proposals for a northern facility had been received.

Status: Planning commission considered the draft and staff intends to present the amendment to council for public hearing on June 18. No council vote occurred on June 4.