Alternative parking requirements

[wv06]

I’m looking for examples of shared parking, land banking, pervious parking.. all kinds of alternative parking requirements in suburban or rural areas.

All the text I have found on this matter relates to City Downtowns and large urban areas... Does anyone have any examples for the typical shopping strip center/ office parks in suburban or rural areas??

-thanks

[DPP]

Glad to see that this topic is getting some interest from non-downtown areas. You're asking about a couple of related issues though...

• Parking requirement relaxations - justifying the provision of less parking stalls than deemed necessary from a city bylaw
  
• Designing more environmentally-friendly parking lots by incorporating green features.

Is one of these of more interest to you than the other? The discussion could focus on one more than the other if one is more important to what you are doing.

[mendelman]

Moved thread to Land Use and Zoning because this is the appropriate forum for such questions. As it pertains to code requirements for encouraging shared parking. mendelman

[wv06]

We are currently relaxing our parking standards (minimums). Looking for ways other then simple shrinking the minimum spaces aloud to improve the parking standards.

Yes we are looking into environmentally friendly policies but the techniques I have came across so far may not be right for this area.. Example- more expensive permeable surfaces, payment in lieu fees, land banking, shared parking garages..

So we are trying to find a good shared parking policy or other techniques that would work in suburban areas without good public transportation and minimum walk ability (located outside of the city center)

Simply struggling to find a good alternative to high-count parking lots in a car dominated suburban rural area? May not be a good answer for this but my hope would be this would trigger some helpful thoughts and ideas.

-Thank you
wv06

[poncho]

We are also looking to lessen our parking standards, mainly through shared parking arrangements.

The problem we have is the big retailers are insisting on at least 4.5 usually 5 or greater per 1000 sq feet. The developers tell us the larger retailer have to have it. Has anyone run into this?

[wv06]

5 per 1,000 sq ft or 1 per 200 (same thing) is the national standard for big box retailers.

However we are working on ways to ease the parking the larger the store gets. Such as porous surfaces after a certain cap of spaces or lowering the minimum per sq ft after a pre determine sq ft cap

[luckless pedestrian]

Bar Harbor has the following allowances:

Required off-street parking shall be located on the same lot as the principal building or use that it serves, except that in the Downtown Business and Shoreland General Development Districts, with site plan approval and subject to such conditions as the Planning Board may impose, off-street parking spaces may be located on land or premises of the same ownership as the lot containing the principal building or use if said land or premises is dedicated for free public parking and is located anywhere within the aforesaid districts. [Amended 11-5-1991]

Shared parking. Applicants may request Planning Board approval for shared parking to meet their off-street parking requirements, provided that the times of usage do not conflict. [Added 5-2-2005]
(a) Applicants must demonstrate that demands for parking are at different times of day (e.g., daytime vs. evening), different days (weekdays vs. weekends), or different seasons of the year; and that proposed uses will not occupy spaces at the same time. The Planning Board shall review requests to share parking on a case-by-case basis, using the following criteria:
[1] The type of business activity and size of business;
[2] The anticipated demand for parking spaces and peak requirements as recommended by the Institute of Transportation Engineers;
[3] The composition of tenants or customers; and
[4] The turnover rate of shared spaces.
(b) If shared parking spaces are on an off-site parking lot, such parking lot may not be farther than 300 feet from each business requesting to share those spaces. This distance shall be measured following a reasonable, safe walking route between the main entrance of each business and the parking lot being shared.
(c) A shared parking agreement shall be filed with the Planning Department of the Town of Bar Harbor. This agreement must specify the party or parties responsible for operating and maintaining the parking area, and for maintaining liability coverage for personal injury and/or property damage. The agreement must be approved by the Town Attorney prior to Planning Board approval.

we are also looking into incentives for ride-sharing and mass transit for our r & D companies here - I am also thinking of putting in demand-based parking as an option for a developer/owner to utilize when going to site plan review

[Seabishop]

We allow parking reductions and shared parking in certain zones by special permit. So its allowed but its a more burdensome process than normal. I've found that business owners are all for sharing parking until they realize a legal agreement is required forever granting parking spaces to their neighbor.