These standards are intended to provide adequate off-street parking for land uses within the City of Ball Ground; to restrict temporary storage of certain vehicles in residential districts; to alleviate any unnecessary traffic congestion; and to encourage development and usage of off-street parking facilities.

(Ord. of 3-13-2025(1), Exh. A)

A.

Each building shall be located on a lot or parcel which abuts a public street for at least 40 feet or has access to a public street by means of a recorded access easement if approved by the Administrator or designee.

B.

Street access and curb cuts for service drives, entrances, exits and other similar facilities on public streets shall be located in accordance with transportation standards and have adequate site lines for motorist and pedestrian safety.

1)

Curb cuts constructed for new driveways to developments on arterial and collector streets shall be aligned directly across from existing curb cuts.

a)

The Administrator or designee may approve other locations when it is determined that alignment with an existing curb cut is not feasible.

2)

No curb cut shall be located within 40 feet of any intersection as measured from the center line of the new drive to the tangent point of the intersection.

3)

No curb cut shall be located within 30 feet of another curb cut measured along the curb line.

4)

A curb cut shall be no greater than 30 feet in width, and no closer than 20 feet to any property line.

C.

All entrances or exits of any street or drive, public or private, from or to any state highway shall be approved by the state highway department prior to the construction of such street or drive, or the issuance of any development permit for any improvement to be served by such street or drive.

(Ord. of 3-13-2025(1), Exh. A)

A.

Existing streets shall be connected and extended throughout the limits of proposed developments.

1)

Where vehicular interconnectivity is required/proposed to an adjacent parcel for future cross access, all elements of the roadway including curb, gutter and asphalt shall be constructed completely to the property line where the future connection will occur. Vehicle interconnectivity is a stated goal within the City's 2023 Comprehensive Plan.

a)

Signage shall be placed at the end of the roadway indicated both the temporary roadway termination as well as the planned future interconnection.

b)

The final plat shall also reference the future interconnectivity.

(Ord. of 3-13-2025(1), Exh. A)

A.

No fence, structure, sign, planting or other obstruction to safe travel vision shall be permitted or maintained.

1)

At the discretion of the Administrator or designee, a site visibility triangle may be required prior to any approvals if safe travel vision is in question.

(Ord. of 3-13-2025(1), Exh. A)

A.

Off-street parking required.

1)

Off-street parking spaces shall be provided in accordance with these regulations whenever a building or use is changed, altered, or enlarged in floor area, or other manner that generates the need for additional parking.

a)

Off-street parking is not required within the City Center—Commercial (formerly CBD) zoning district.

B.

Review and approval procedures.

1)

A parking plan for all but individual single-family residential uses shall be submitted as part of the plan review process.

2)

The Administrator or designee shall review the proposed parking plan to ensure its conformance with all applicable provisions of this article.

3)

Occupancy or use of a building shall not be allowed until the parking facilities are completed in accordance with the approved plan.

4)

The parking facilities shall be permanently maintained by the owners or the occupants for their invitees and/or licensees.

C.

Location of required off-street parking spaces.

1)

All parking spaces required herein shall be located on the same parcel with the principal building or use or uses served or in other areas as provided in this division.

2)

No parking area used to meet the off-street parking requirements as provided herein may be used for the sale, repair, dismantling, servicing or long-term storage of any vehicle or equipment.

D.

Required parking provided off-site.

1)

In cases where the required parking space is not located on the same lot as the principal use or as allowed in the public right-of-way, the owner of the lot on which the off-site parking is located must relinquish, through a covenant agreement, their development rights over the property, until such time as parking space is provided elsewhere or on the same premises as the principal use or uses.

2)

The off-site parking area shall be no more than 500 feet from the entrance of the principal use, as measured along the street right-of-way.

3)

The off-site parking spaces may not be separated from the use(s) served by a street right-of-way greater than 80 feet in width.

E.

Mixed uses/Joint uses.

1)

For a parcel with more than one principal or accessory use or uses, the parking spaces required shall equal the sum of the requirements of the various uses computed separately, unless a detailed parking study based upon Urban Land Institute (ULI) standards is submitted to, and approved by, the Administrator or designee.

2)

Parking for mixed or joint uses must be available on an equal basis for all users; provided however, that shared parking spaces provided pursuant to a ULI parking study may be restricted to specific users during certain hours.

3)

Recorded cross-easements may be required for shared parking.

4)

It is the responsibility of the applicant to provide the parking study and related documentation for staff review.

5)

Staff shall investigate the provided shared parking study and make a determination if the study is valid.

a)

If staff determines that the shared parking study is invalid, the applicant must provide parking in accordance with this ordinance.

F.

Guest parking required for residential developments.

1)

Residential developments of 10 units or more must provide guest parking spaces in accordance with Table 107-1—RESIDENTIAL GUEST PARKING REQUIREMENTS.

a)

Per Table 107-1, one guest space must be provided per unit for no less than the given percentage of the total units.

(1)

For example, a 100-unit development with average lot sizes of 5,000 square feet must provide 20 guest parking spaces (20 percent of 100 units = 20 spaces).

b)

Where calculations result in a fraction, values are to be rounded up to the nearest whole number for the required total.

2)

Guest parking spaces shall be provided in addition to other required parking spaces.

3)

All guest spaces must be accommodated on site/within the development and be designed/constructed as required herein.

TABLE 107-1—RESIDENTIAL GUEST PARKING REQUIREMENTS

G.

Requirements for uses not specifically listed.

1)

A parking study conducted by a qualified professional such as a licensed engineer, the use of Urban Land Institute studies and standards, the use of Institute of Transportation Engineers studies and standards or other government issued standards may be used to justify the proposed number of parking spaces for land uses not listed in Table 107-2 or these methods may be used as an alternative to the requirements of Table 107-2, subject to staff review and approval. Details of such justification shall be included on all plans submitted for review and approval by the City.

2)

Such justification shall be included on all plans submitted for approval.

H.

Parking requirement calculations.

1)

Table 107-2 enumerates the off-street parking requirements for all properties within the City.

a)

There shall be no required parking spaces in the CC-C district.

2)

Square footage refers to the gross square footage of a building.

3)

Where fractional spaces result, the parking spaces required shall be construed to be the next highest whole number.

4)

Where required spaces or the unit of measure are provided as a range in the chart below, the exact ratio shall be at the developers discretion.

TABLE 107-2—OFF-STREET PARKING REQUIREMENTS

(Ord. of 3-13-2025(1), Exh. A)

A.

General requirements for parking facilities.

1)

Design of parking areas, including space and driveway arrangement, shall conform to the geometric design standards of the Institute of Traffic Engineers, which is hereby incorporated by reference as though fully set forth herein.

2)

All parking facilities shall have access to a public right-of-way.

3)

Stop signs and stop bars shall be provided at the transition from the parking area to the public right-of-way.

a)

Crosswalks shall be required if sidewalk is present.

4)

For businesses that have drive-through access, parking spaces and travel aisles shall be arranged in a manner that provides sufficient stacking area from the public access driveway to prevent vehicles from backing up into the adjacent roadway.

B.

Surfacing requirements.

1)

All spaces must be marked with paint lines or other similar designation.

2)

All parking spaces shall be surfaced with a suitable paving material such as asphalt, concrete, specialty pavers or loose material that is sufficient for vehicles and ADA compliance.

3)

All parking surfaces shall be bounded by curb and gutter, except those serving one-family and two-family dwelling units, and

a)

Other uses requiring or providing six or fewer parking spaces, may instead be surfaced with other suitable material, as determined by the Administrator or designee.

4)

All vehicles (including, but not limited to, automobiles, trailers, recreational vehicles, watercraft and similar) may only be parked on a surface treated and hardened to accommodate vehicles up to 8,000 pounds gross axle weight.

a)

The provisions of the required spaces on a temporary basis on a hard surfaced sub base (subgrade plus an asphalt first layer or bound crushed stone aggregate) shall satisfy this requirement.

C.

Dimensional requirements—Parking spaces.

1)

Parking spaces 90 degrees (perpendicular) to the travel way aisle shall not be less than nine feet in width and 20 feet in length.

2)

Angled parking spaces positioned at other than 90 degrees to the aisle travel way, parallel parking spaces, and one-way travel aisles shall be dimensioned in accordance with recognized standard criteria.

3)

In the cases of 25 or more required parking spaces, no more than 25 percent of the required spaces may be of an area not less than eight feet by 16 feet.

4)

Each parking space shall exclude aisles, maneuvering space, turnaround space, and drives.

D.

Dimensional requirements—Drive aisles.

1)

All two-way aisles shall be a minimum of 24 feet in width.

2)

One-way aisles shall be designed in accordance with standards provided by government sources such as the Georgia Department of Transportation.

a)

The presence of and angle of accompanying parking spaces shall be factored into the width of a drive aisle.

E.

Lighting.

1)

Adequate lighting shall be provided if the facilities are to be used at night.

2)

Such lighting shall be arranged and installed so as not to reflect or cause glare on abutting properties.

3)

A photometric plan shall be submitted and reviewed by staff prior to the approval of any lighting for a parking facility.

F.

Landscaping and screening.

1)

Parking islands.

a)

A maximum of 15 parking spaces in a row will be permitted without a parking island, outlined by curb and gutter.

b)

The parking island area shall be at least 150 square feet.

c)

Each parking island shall include one, 4-inch DBH tree no less than 10 feet in height and appropriate ground cover such as additional plantings, turf, straw or similar.

d)

The preceding landscape requirements shall apply only to surface parking lots and not to parking structures.

2)

Non-residential parking areas established within a residential district.

a)

Shall provide visual screening between vehicle use areas, including all accessways, and the abutting residential property.

b)

Such screening may consist of a wall or solid fence no less than five feet in height and/or a vegetative row of hedges and trees sufficient in nature to provide continuous visual screening.

c)

Such screening improvements shall be located upon a non-paved surface at least 5 feet in width and are subject to approval by the Administrator.

d)

See standards set forth in section 106.5 (Tree Protection and Landscaping) for landscaping requirements.

(Ord. of 3-13-2025(1), Exh. A)

A.

Business and recreational vehicle parking.

1)

Front yards

a)

No business or recreational vehicle shall be allowed to park in front of the principal structure in a district zoned for residential purposes.

(1)

If the property is located on a corner lot, no parking of the vehicle may occur within 20 feet of the rear/side that abuts a public street.

B.

Vehicle repair and maintenance.

1)

Repairs, maintenance and similar activities may not be conducted on vehicles located on any public street.

a)

This prohibition shall not apply to emergency repairs taking less than 24 hours to complete.

(Ord. of 3-13-2025(1), Exh. A)

A.

Where required, off-street loading spaces shall be provided on the same or adjoining premises with the facility it serves, either inside or outside a building.

B.

A loading berth shall have a minimum dimension of 12 feet by 35 feet by 14 feet overhead clearance.

C.

Such facilities must be designed so that no truck/vehicle maneuvering occurs on the public right-of-way nor in areas designated for the parking of vehicles except in the City Center-Commercial in which case designated loading zones may also be utilized.

D.

Loading areas must be adequately screened from residentially zoned properties, subject to approval from the Administrator or designee.

TABLE 107-3—OFF-STREET LOADING REQUIREMENTS

(Ord. of 3-13-2025(1), Exh. A)