City updates off-street parking rules for warehouses, adds manufacturing standard

The Socorro City Council on May 15 adopted an amendment to Chapter 46 (Zoning), Article 5 (Supplemental Regulations), revising off-street parking requirements for warehouse and distribution uses and adding a new parking standard for manufacturing.

Staff said existing parking ratios were producing excessive parking requirements for modern logistics centers and prompted frequent variance requests. The prior standard required one parking space per 500 square feet of net leasable area for warehouses. The adopted change establishes one parking space per 2,000 square feet of enclosed warehouse floor area plus one space per 500 square feet of office space, and an additional 0.5 trailer parking spaces for each accessible dock or overhead door. The new manufacturing standard mirrors the warehouse approach with a manufacturing-specific ratio.

Staff presented example comparisons: under the old rules a recent project would have required nearly 1,950 parking spaces; with the new standard the same proposal would require approximately 292 spaces. Staff said peer cities reviewed included El Paso, Lubbock, and San Angelo.

Councilmembers voiced support for updating the code to reduce unnecessary land dedicated to parking and to reflect the parking demands of logistics operations. The ordinance passed with no recorded opposition in the meeting record.

Staff will apply the new requirements to future site plan and variance requests and will continue to process earlier applications under the rules that were in effect when those projects were submitted, subject to grandfathering and variance procedures.