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Round Rock council adopts changes to off-street parking requirements
Summary
The Round Rock City Council voted to adopt an ordinance reducing or removing minimum off-street parking requirements for many nonresidential uses, keeping protections in certain residential and mixed-use districts and preserving parking minimums for assembly uses. The move aims to lower development costs and free up land for reuse.
The Round Rock City Council on May 14 adopted an ordinance to reduce or eliminate minimum off-street parking requirements for a range of nonresidential land uses, a policy shift city staff said is intended to lower development costs and encourage reinvestment in older commercial centers.
Planning staff told the council that the change would give property owners and developers more site-specific flexibility and that construction costs make parking expensive. "Parking is extremely expensive to build. It's $5 to $10,000 per space for a surface parking lot and up to 10 times that much if you want to build a parking garage," planning staff said during the presentation. Staff said the amendment retains on-site parking requirements in local commercial (C2), mixed-use (MUR) and residential districts and continues to require parking for residential and assembly uses, and some other uses the city considers likely to create a high parking demand.
City staff framed the measure as part of a longer-term strategic plan aimed at enabling redevelopment and more efficient land use. The presentation noted that about 43% of developed commercial land in Round Rock is currently used for parking and recommended providing parking ratios as guidance rather than hard minimums. Staff also flagged potential side effects, including spillover parking into neighborhoods and the risk of new auto-oriented pad sites, and noted the city has tools such as residential permit parking districts to address problems if they arise.
The ordinance was the subject of a public hearing during the meeting; no members of the public spoke during that hearing. Councilmember Ortega moved to adopt the ordinance, the Mayor Pro Tem seconded, and the council voted to approve the change. Councilmembers who voted yes included Mayor Craig Morgan, Mayor Pro Tem Stevens, Councilmembers Lee, Flores, Fleming, Ortega and Montgomery.
The ordinance lowers the hotel parking requirement from one space per room to 0.8 spaces per room, maintains downtown exceptions established in 2013 for smaller uses, and clarifies that parking provisions in PUDs that conflict with the amendment will be able to follow the revised standard. Council staff said other parking design and ADA requirements remain unchanged.
The first-reading public hearing and the council vote complete the ordinance's adoption at this meeting; the council also voted to dispense with a second reading and finalize the change. The revised code will be available through the city's planning department and will include recommended ratios for applicants and lenders to consider.
