Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Parking Policy topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Commission debates ground‑floor parking approach to free up lot space and add green area
Summary
Planners presented a draft approach that lowers the ground‑floor floor‑to‑floor height to permit ground‑floor parking without raising overall building height; staff proposed a 50% minimum ground‑floor parking footprint to qualify for an extra floor and emphasized liner‑use requirements to preserve Main Street storefronts.
City planners presented a draft approach to allow ground‑floor parking while keeping buildings within existing height limits, a proposal commissioners said could free up surface lot space for green areas.
Planner Joe Tangary explained the technical change: instead of a strict 15‑foot ground‑floor ceiling requirement, the city would measure floor‑to‑floor height (for example, 12 feet for the ground floor and 10 feet above), giving developers flexibility to carve parking under a building without increasing overall building height. “The floor to floor ceiling height just kinda gives you the space you're working with rather than actually trying to place a ceiling on it,” Tangary said.
Under the draft concept, a project that puts parking under the ground floor would need to commit a substantial portion of the ground floor to parking (Joe used an illustrative 50% threshold) to qualify for an extra story within the same height limit. Tangary said the intention is to reduce the area devoted to surface parking and reclaim space for buffers or green features.
Commissioners raised concerns about how tuck‑under parking might be used for storage, bikes or trash, and asked staff to require centralized dumpster enclosures and clear lease language prohibiting outdoor storage in tucked spaces. Commissioners also emphasized the need for “liner uses” — active storefronts or lobby spaces facing primary streets — so that parking is not the visible frontage at major intersections.
Members asked staff to draft ordinance language, including minimums for parking footprints, frontage/liner standards and trash/dumpster rules, and to provide design guidance for rooftop screening and green‑space tradeoffs (green roofs vs. underground detention). Tangary said he will draft language for the commission to review at an upcoming meeting.
Next steps: staff will draft ordinance language and an open‑space requirement, research parking standards used by similar cities, and return with proposed code text for the commission to consider.
