08-11-1999 Council Agenda - Laserfiche WebLink

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AUG -06 -1999 13:44 NRC 612 595 9837 P.03'05 Retail/Commercial Little Canada's current ordinance requires one space per 200 square feet of net floor area, defined as the gross floor area minus 10 %. For a 10,000 square foot retail space, this would result in a parking requirement of 45 spaces. Other standards range from one space per 150 sf. net usable, to as little as one space per 1,000 sf. The standards tend to cluster in the one space per 200 to 250 sf. net, or 1/300 sf. gross. For a 10,000 sf. building, the latter standard would require 33 spaces. The other standards depend on the definition of "net" - a specific percentage reduction, or an actual floor space calculation. The ITE study indicates a range of 2.7 to 3.4 spaces per 1,000 square feet of leasable area. Leasable area varies from building to building. Using the 10% standard of Little Canada's ordinance, a requirement of 24 to 31 spaces would be required. For most retailing sites, 10% would likely be the least non - leasable area. In summary, Little Canada's requirement of 45 spaces for this retail store is probably high. It should be noted that some types of retail demand more - grocery stores always seek sites with at least 5 to 6 spaces per 1,000 sf_ gross. For the general case, though, a requirement of one space per 300 sf. gross would result in a standard which seems to be appropriate. The ITE study does indicate, however, that as retail shopping centers get Larger, the parking accumulation goes up, into the neighborhood of Little Canada's current requirements. Office Little Canada's office requirement is one space per 200 square feet net (10% reduction from gross), plus 3 spaces. For a 40,000 square foot office building, this would be 183 spaces. Standards from other ordinances range similar to the retail standard, from one space per 750 sf. to one space per 200 sf. net. A very strong cluster of ordinance are in the 1 /200 to 1/250 sf. range. The issue again comes down to the definition of "net ". In an analysis of the DaVem proposal, the high amount of utility, stairwell, and toilet space in the small office units resulted in a net which was about 65% of the gross floor area. Larger office buildings will be more efficient. Using an actual net, the DaVem requirement under Little Canada's ordinance was about 140 spaces, instead of the more than 200 spaces required under the flat 10% reduction. The ITE study analyzes office on a gross floor area basis. The range for small office parks runs for 0.75 spaces per 1,000 sf. to 4.7 spaces per 1,000 sf. This would result in a range of parking for the 40,000 sf. building of 30 spaces to 188 spaces. The median was about 2.9 spaces per 1,000 sf - 116 spaces for our fictional 40,000 sf. building. Page 32