City Council Minutes 1998 11 17 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Through previous discussions, based on studies and analyses provided by Staff, Council has determined that a ratio of 2.0 spaces per thousand square feet of floor area best represents the demand generation rate of parking in the downtown area. This Ordinance before Planning Commission and City Council would codify this parking ratio and use that as the basis for the improvement fee. This downtown parking generation rate is lower than that for individual commercial uses because of the mix of uses present downtown. The lower rate is possible because the varying peak parking demands generated by different uses do not occur at the same time each day and a single automobile trip or parking space can serve multiple destinations or uses downtown. The Ordinance establishes a parking requirement for Downtown Louisville of 2.0 spaces per one thousand square feet of floor area. It also establishes a parking improvement fee and allows the applicant to pay the fee in lieu of, or in combination with, .providing off-street parking to meet the requirement. As has been the stated policy of City Council, restaurant and retail development would be exempt from meeting the proposed off-street parking requirement and payment of a parking improvement fee. Instead, such uses will be required to provide parking for employees at a ratio of one parking space per 1,000 square feet of floor area. An employee to floor area ratio is assumed to be one per thousand square feet. Some restaurant uses may employ more than one person per thousand square feet. The Ordinance provides that if a retail or restaurant use changes to another approved use in either the CC or CB zoning districts, parking shall be requiredat 2:1000 or the required fee shall be paid prior to the issuance of a certificate of occupancy. The amount of the fee is proposed at $5,000 per required parking space. Staff has provided a range of estimates of the cost that City would incur in providing surface parking on a per space basis. These estimates were reviewed by Council while determining an appropriate per-space fee during the first reading of this Ordinance. The proposed fee would likely represent a subsidy by the City for providing parking downtown when the option to pay a fee in lieu of providing parking is selected by the property owner if land values remain as strong as they are today. Customer parking for restaurant and retail development downtown will need to be provided by the City. Fees collected through this Ordinance will help defray the cost of providing this parking as well as those off-street parking spaces that are required but are not provided by the property owner. During the Planning Commission hearing, some members of the public were concemed that the improvement fee was set too high by Council. They were concerned that they would be double- charged for parking if a fee-base parking permit system was adopted. In fact, there has been a great deal of speculation on the amount of money that could be generated to support downtown parking through a parking permit fee. There is no evidence to support such a supposition. On the contrary, research by Staff indicates that a permit fee would, at best, allow for the City to recoup the costs of 4