Off-street parking areas should be designed to minimize breaks in the pedestrian environment along the public street and create safe and comfortable passage for pedestrians.

The following standards shall therefore be met.

1. A.
   Curb cuts shall be minimized.
2. B.
   No off-street parking area shall be located within any front yard except for single-family residential uses or as noted with specific Building Type or District requirements. All off-street parking spaces for multi-family buildings shall be in the rear yard only.
3. C.
   All off-street parking spaces for multi-family buildings shall be in the rear yard only.
4. D.
   Parking lots shall be placed behind buildings; side of the building parking will be permitted only as indicated by building type. Off-street parking is not permitted in front of the primary building façade, except for detached homes, where specified in an adopted street section, or detailed as a public plaza or square.
5. E.
   Parking lots shall be designed to allow pedestrians to safely move from their vehicles to the building. On small lots (36 spaces or less), this may be achieved by providing a sidewalk at the perimeter of the lot. On larger lots, corridors within the parking area should channel pedestrians from the car to the perimeter of the lot or to the building. These corridors are delineated by a paving material that differs from that of vehicular areas and are planted to provide shade. Small posts or bollards may be included.
6. F.
   Adjoining parking lots serving non-residential buildings shall be interconnected.
7. G.
   Parking, loading, and other vehicular access should occur at mid-block or in the alley.
8. H.
   Parking areas shall not abut pedestrian-oriented street intersections or civic buildings, be adjacent to squares or parks, or occupy lots which terminate a vista.
9. I.
   Off-street parking areas shall be designed to facilitate adequate movement and access by sanitation, emergency, and other public service vehicles without posing a danger to pedestrians or impeding the function of the parking area.
10. J.
    Off-street parking areas shall be designed so that parked vehicles do not encroach upon or extend onto public rights-of-way, sidewalks or strike against or damage any wall, vegetation, utility, or other structure.
11. K.
    Disabled parking shall be provided in accordance with the North Carolina State Accessibility Code.
12. L.
    All parking areas shall be curbed using a standard curb with a minimum width of 1’6”. This requirement may be waived in an area that is subject to the City’s Water Supply Watershed Ordinance to permit sheet flow drainage into pervious areas or as part of an alternative engineered storm water retention system.
13. M.
    In order to minimize the impact of large expanses of impervious surfaces on the environment, 5% of the parking spaces of all lots in excess of 36 spaces shall be constructed using pervious pavement systems. This figure shall be calculated on a development-wide basis.

Effective on: 1/1/1901

9.2 GENERAL PARKING REQUIREMENTS

Typical Parking Arrangement

1. 1.
   MINIMUM PARKING RATIOS

   All square footage is in leasable square feet. Uses less than 2,500 leasable square feet are exempt from parking requirements in the D-D and NC-C Districts only. Parking requirements may be satisfied using on-street parking in front of buildings or public lots within 300 ft of primary building entrances.

In an effort to establish a limit on the amount of impervious surfaces and to reduce the urban heat island effect, the maximum number of parking spaces allowed shall be 125% of the number of required parking spaces in the above table. Structured parking facilities are exempt from this maximum.

Exceeding Maximum Parking Ratios: The Planning Director may approve parking spaces in excess of the maximum parking ratio, but only if he or she finds that the applicant has proven that the additional spaces are necessary for the normal operation of the business or organization. If the applicant requests parking in excess of 200% of the minimum ratio, then he or she must receive a special use permit.

Any additional parking spaces over the maximum (125% of the minimum) must be no more than 30 feet from the base of a large shade tree and must be constructed from an approved pervious material. The pervious material must be properly maintained, using a technique found in the NCDENR stormwater BMP manual.

2. 2.
   PARKING SPACE DIMENSIONS

   1. A.
      Parking space dimensions (other than those designed for the disabled) shall be eighteen (18) feet long and nine (9) feet wide. Parking spaces shall be dimensioned in relation to curbs or aisles, so long as their configuration, area, and dimensions satisfy the requirements of this Section.
   2. B.
      Parallel parking space dimensions shall be a minimum of twenty (20) feet by eight (8) feet. This dimension is measured from the face of the curb and may include the gutter.
   3. C.
      Parking spaces for compact cars shall be a minimum of eight and one half (8.5) feet wide and sixteen (16) feet long. Compact car spaces may be used in place of a standard size parking space. The total number of compact car parking spaces may not exceed 15% of the total number of parking spaces.
3. 3.
   AISLE AND DRIVEWAY WIDTHS FOR PARKING LOTS

   The following provisions apply to all driveways and parking lots except those for single family homes and duplexes.

   1. A.
      Parking lot area aisle widths shall conform to the following table, which varies the width requirement according to the angle of parking:

1.  
   2. B.
      Driveways shall be a maximum of twelve (12) feet in width for one-way traffic and twenty-four (24) feet in width for two-way traffic. In no case shall a driveway width exceed twenty-four (24) feet, except as required by the City of Belmont or the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT).

4. 4.
   SHARED PARKING

   1. A.
      The joint use of shared off-street parking between two uses may be made by contract between two or more adjacent property owners. Adjacent lots in a HC District shall be interconnected.
   2. B.
      Where vehicular access is provided between adjoining non-residential sites and the operating hours of adjoining uses do not overlap, the uses may share up to 50% of required parking spaces. Shared use of parking shall be guaranteed by a contract or other legally binding document.
   3. C.
      Residential buildings may meet or contribute to meeting parking requirements with on-street parking if individual driveways are minimized and the fronting street is specifically designed to meet the parking needs of the residential buildings.
5. 5.
   BICYCLE PARKING

   All non-residential development with more than 36 parking spaces, recreation facilities, and multi-family residential buildings where no garages are provided shall include an area for parking bicycles. This area may be a designated parking space within the parking lot near the building or an area outside the parking lot adjacent to the building. The bike parking area must include a bike rack. The Downtown District is exempt from these requirements.

6. 6.
   OVERFLOW PARKING

   Off-street areas used for special event parking (to accommodate occasional overflow volumes) may be constructed of any dust-free compacted, pervious ground cover; the owner of the property shall be responsible for the maintenance of such parking in a clean and dust-free condition. Grass and mulch are examples of acceptable pervious ground cover.

7. 7.
   STRUCTURED PARKING

   Where above-ground structured parking is located at the perimeter of a building, it should be screened in such a way that cars are not visible from adjacent buildings or the street. Locating structured parking at the interior of the block, surrounded by buildings, is the preferred method.

(TA2020.02, passed 05/04/2020) 

Effective on: 5/4/2020

Parking lots are to be treated as enclosed rooms for cars. For small lots (36 spaces or less), landscaping shall be required at the perimeter; for large lots (more than 36 spaces), landscaping shall be at the perimeter and the interior. In large lots, the landscaping shall be placed to break the lot into parking modules of not more than thirty-six spaces. The perimeter yard of all parking lots shall be screened with a Type B (Semi-Opaque Screen) in accordance with 11.2 (B). The interior yard of all parking areas shall be landscaped with Type C (Interior Plantings) in accordance with 11.2 (C).

Effective on: 1/1/1901