The Planning and Zoning Commission held a discussion related to proposed amendments to parking and loading requirements in the Town Zoning Ordinance when it met on Monday, Feb. 13.

In his report to the commission, Development Services Director John Wesley noted that commission members had been providing comments and suggestions over the past year. The proposal presented at the February commission meeting is a draft of the new regulations.

Wesley was seeking further comment from the commissioners at the public meeting with a goal to prepare the draft for a public hearing and possible adoption.

The parking and loading requirements are chapter seven of the ordinance and the objective of the update is to remove errors and inconsistencies, improve readability and flow, update standards and add new provisions if needed.

Section 7.02, related to applicability, has a subsection (B) to address changes related to existing development.

“Given the built nature of the Town, this section will be used a lot (to) address reuse, expansion or redevelopment situations,” Wesley said.

The new draft has added some flexibility for the Town engineer to consider alternative paving materials.

This is a proposal supported by Commission Chairman Peter Gray. He said he favors reducing pavement that contributes to a heat island. Gray said he does not want to see oversized parking lots and would like to leverage public space to allow a tradeoff between hard and soft parking.

According to Gray, technology has created materials that can provide the durability needed for parking, but permeable to allow for reduced heat and storm runoff.

A new section has been added to the ordinance to require maintenance of parking areas.

Illustrations and tables used in the ordinance have been updated to provide greater clarity.

Design standards for residential uses would require a minimum of two covered parking spaces. Wesley said this requirement may have the effect of limiting conversion of garages to living space.

Covered parking requirements have also been added for multi-residence and commercial development. For multi-residence the requirement is for one per unit. For business and office uses, with 10 or more parking spaces there would be one covered space per office suite.

In the design standards for multi-residential and non-residential a provision has been added to require a setback to reduce ingress and egress conflicts.

Off-street parking requirements for mixed use zoning were amended to allow for shared parking. A provision was added to clarify that providing parking for businesses vehicles does not count toward required spaces. A provision was added to set a maximum number of paved parking spaces.

Staff proposed a requirement for golf courses to include two spaces per tee plus required spaces for restaurant and golf shop. Commission members felt that two spaces per tee was not enough and possibly four should be considered. For private golf clubs there is an existing requirement of one space per every five member families or individuals.

The ordinance would add requirements related to bicycle parking. Electric vehicle parking requirements are being considered with staff still working on language related to that.

Staff was asked to consider overnight parking as part of the ordinance. Wesley said Town Code addresses that by prohibiting overnight parking in areas authorized and signed properly restricting it. “Overnight” is defined as 11 p.m. to 5 a.m.

Wesley said he recommends the ordinance with additional commission modifications. It will be noticed for a public hearing and brought back at a later date for consideration of a recommendation to Town Council.