14 - Laserfiche WebLink

Parking In the application reviewed by the Planning Commission, parking within the carport was stated to be allocated between the residential use (two lift spaces), and the commercial use (one surface space). However, as noted, the upper lift space would not be considered "unobstructed" and therefore could not be counted towards satisfying the residential parking requirement. Through the appeal, the applicant has stated that all spaces within the carport (i.e., the bottom lift space and surface space, both of which conform with the PMC, and the top lift space) would now be assigned to the residential unit. The carport provides two parking spaces that comply with the PMC and the residential unit requires two parking spaces per the PMC. As such, the residential would be considered fully parked on-site. Given the added detail about the carport assignment to the residential unit, staff recommends adding a Condition of Approval requiring the carport be assignment to the residential unit, as seen in Exhibit A of Attachment 1. While the parking lift provided in the carport cannot count toward the PMC, staff considers this a "bonus" parking space that, although not meeting the technical requirements of the PMC for an unobstructed space could nonetheless be used by the residential unit and increase the amount of on- site parking provided. The project is providing nine other surface parking spaces on-site that comply with the PMC for the commercial building and one parking space through payment of an in -lieu parking fee which is permitted by the PMC in this zoning district. The commercial building requires 10 parking spaces, so if the in -lieu payment is accepted by the City Council, the project would comply with the required parking for the commercial portion of the project. Through the appeal, the applicant has offered to provide their commercial parking area (i.e., nine surface parking spaces) to be open to the public on the weekends. The existing commercial offices on the site have limited hours (e.g., the dentist office is only open two days per week), so the lot is unused several days of the week. Offering to open the lot to the public during the weekends may alleviate some parking on the public street during peak parking demand when the community is shopping or eating downtown. Staff notes uses may change over time and new uses at this location may not always have such limited hours. Given that the subject application is not a use permit or directly associated with the commercial uses on the site, and that operating hours or needs of the commercial use component of the project may change over time, staff does not recommend conditioning this application to allow for this public use of the lot. Even if the availability of the parking cannot be guaranteed in perpetuity, staff acknowledges opening the parking lot to the public will be a positive amenity for the commercial uses in the immediate area (e.g., Adobe Plaza) and may alleviate any overflow on -street parking that sometimes impacts Walnut Drive, a residential street, during peak hours. Page 6 of 9