12-01-2016 Parks & Rec Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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903.050. H.4 - Public Parks, Playgrounds and Playfield. At least five (5) parking spaces for each acre of park over one (1) acre; two (2) parking spaces per acre for playgrounds, and ten (10) spaces for each acre of playfield. When a public recreation site has more than one (1) use designation, the areas must be divided for determining the required parking space. In reviewing an aerial photo of the park and using on-line measurement tools, it appears our ordinance would require 243 spaces. We have 171 spaces or a shortage of 72. The need for more parking at Pioneer Park seem counter intuitive when you consider that for normal park functions, adequate paved parking exists without requiring users to park on City streets. As we discussed at the workshop, this issue of “needing” the grassed overflow lot is associated with tournament activity. According to the Parks & Recreation Director, this occurs about four times a year. Staff then looked at ordinances from some other Minnesota cities to see how they handle required parking for parks facilities. We looked at Edina, Brooklyn Park and Maple Grove to see how growing communities with more undeveloped land handle parking. We also looked at Roseville, Maplewood, and Shoreview to see what the larger, suburban cities in Ramsey County are doing. Here is what we found: Brooklyn Park - 1 space for each 4 seats (one seat equals 22 inches of pew or bench space) of design capacity and/or 10 seats for each field and/or 20 seats for each ball diamond. A percentage of the parking may be provided in grass lots provided those lots are used not more than 5 times per year. In this case, we would need 80 spots for the four ballfields or 100 if you also add in the soccer field. Maple Grove – They had no provision for public parks or facilities. They did have the language that reads: Other Uses: Requirements for other uses not specifically mentioned in this section shall be determined on an individual basis by the City Council. Factors to be considered in such determination shall include, without limitation, size of building, type of use, number of employees, expected volume and turnover of customer traffic and expected frequency and number of delivery or service vehicles. Edina – They also had no specific provisions for parks and related facilities. In fact their entire off street parking provisions related to structures and there was not a provision dealing with “not listed” uses. Maplewood – They list parking requirements in their various zoning districts. In their Open Space and Parks District, no parking requirements are noted. Roseville - Parking space requirements are established in Table 1019-1. For uses not listed, the offstreet parking requirements shall be established by the Community Development Department based upon the characteristics and functional similarities between uses including, but not limited to: the size of building, type of use, number of