Planning board backs new shared-parking language for city code, asks staff to draft ordinance

The Planning & Zoning Board voted to ask staff to prepare an ordinance that would update the city’s parking code to allow for structured shared-parking arrangements and reduced overall parking requirements where uses have complementary peak times.

Director Amy Skinner told the board the existing code only contains a single-sentence allowance for shared parking and lacks the detail needed to implement shared-parking reductions in practice. She summarized the staff-drafted table that shows weekday/day/night and weekend demand factors intended to let mixed-use developments and downtown businesses match supply to actual demand rather than building for a theoretical maximum.

Board members urged staff to prepare real examples that show how the new rules would apply to typical local cases such as a daytime office with an upstairs residence or a downtown restaurant that is quiet during the workday. Several members suggested staff run the draft past at least one commissioner informally before the Commission hearing so elected officials see concrete examples. The board made a formal motion directing staff to draft the ordinance, include illustrative examples and to forward the proposal to the City Commission; the board added a finding that the change is “no more burdensome” than current requirements.

If the City Commission adopts the language, the change would create an administrative pathway for staff to approve shared-parking reductions where on-site, off-site or time-offset arrangements meet the city’s standards.