A.    All buildings and uses without a building must have off-street vehicle parking for the residents, patrons, visitors or employees of the building or use, provided by the building or property owner according to the parking supply schedule in subsection (B) of this section unless otherwise authorized. Parking lots are approved and constructed as provided in Section 15.04.460 and are part of the plan and method of operation process under Chapter 17.100.

B.    Calculating Spaces Required.

1.    Parking Supply Schedule.

2.    How Calculated.

a.    When application of the parking supply schedule results in a fractional parking space disregard any fraction up to one-half and any fraction one-half or more must be rounded up to the whole.

b.    Building square feet in the parking supply schedule is gross square feet, unless otherwise specified.

“Gross square foot” means the total square footage of a building, measured between exterior surfaces of the exterior walls excluding the following:

i.    Areas excluded in Section 17.116.010(C)(2).

ii.    Corridors less than six feet wide.

iii.    Hotel meeting rooms.

iv.    Portions of those structures excepted from the height regulations per Section 17.136.030(B).

“Net floor area” means the building floor space occupied by uses which create demand for parking spaces after deducting the areas listed here from the gross square foot.

Net floor area parking requirement calculation: Total the number of parking spaces as determined from either the parking supply schedule or the operation/parking study required for the net floor area for each use. See sample calculation from the Department of Community Development.

c.    Parking spaces located in garages or other building areas are given credit towards the required total.

d.    Unclassified Uses. In the case of uses not specified herein, the number of spaces for similar building or land use, should be calculated based on the Urban Land Institute or Parking Generation Manual of the Institute of Transportation Engineers, latest editions, or the applicant may submit an operations/parking demand study for the building or land use per the procedures herein.

e.    Multiple Uses. For buildings or land use with two or more uses on one lot or parcel, the cumulative number of spaces required for each use shall determine the total number of spaces required.

3.    Adjustments to the Chart.

a.    Commercial retail, restaurant, hotel or similar hospitality uses located within 1,250 feet of a public transit stop may reduce parking requirements by 10%.

b.    Industrial and office uses located within 1,250 feet of a public transit stop may reduce parking requirements by 15%.

c.    Alternate Transportation Reduction.

i.    Businesses with employer established rideshare programs such as vanpools may reduce parking requirements for each carpooled or bused employee not to exceed 20% of required parking or one required parking space may be eliminated up to 10% of the required spaces for each priority spaces provided near building entrances for taxi or Uber/Lyft like services.

ii.    These reductions are available only if the property owner enters a restrictive covenant in favor of the City which requires the dedicated spaces to exist for a minimum of five years. The restrictive covenant must be in a format acceptable to the City Attorney and be submitted with the parking application. The failure to maintain the parking spaces as promised under the covenant subjects the property owner to a fine and the denial of any parking reduction application.

4.    Operation/parking demand studies required to be prepared by the parking supply schedule or for unclassified uses must:

a.    Submit an operations/parking demand study for review by the Plan Commission who will make a recommendation to the Common Council for a decision on the number of parking spaces necessary for the building or use.

b.    Studies must include:

i.    Operational characteristics by land use or building type such as but not limited to days and hours of operation, operational peak hours, expected maximum occupancy of residents, employees, or visitors and any other information necessary to determine the amount of parking stalls necessary for the building and use. Maximum occupancy for residential uses other than those listed in the parking supply schedule must include number of units, bedrooms per unit, and anticipated guest or management staff and resident population, limited to those who are expected to have vehicles needing parking.

ii.    (A)    Indicate the necessary parking supply by a unit of measure such as by square feet of floor area, number of occupants established by occupancy limits, or other applicable unit as recommended by the sources relied on to generate the proposal. Cite sources used to calculate parking supply needs such as Urban Land Institute or Parking Generation Manual of the Institute of Transportation Engineers, latest edition.

(B)    Alternatively, cite comparable land use types or recent studies that are located within a suburban setting in a northern climate subject to snow removal/storage, etc. Identify author of study, their credentials, location of precedents, and contact information for the community representatives where the parking was located. Applicants may use studies or information from their own operations in other jurisdictions if the information required here is provided.

iii.    Submit the number of copies in paper and digital formats as required by the Department of Community Development.

C.    Location. All required off-street parking spaces must be located on the same lot as the building or land use they serve except as provided herein.

D.    Off-Site Parking.

1.    Off-site parking is both an exception to the on-site requirement and a possible reduction in the number of spaces necessary on site or overall. Off-site parking may be shared or exclusive. “Exclusive” means access is provided to a set number of parking spaces for the building or use that needs the off-site spaces; “shared” means that either the lot is large enough to accommodate all users of the buildings or uses involved or that the parking needs of the buildings or uses are offset by their operational hours.

2.    Off-site parking may be authorized if the applicant submits written documentation with their application that off-site parking spaces are available to satisfy all the parking requirements of the parking supply schedule or as demonstrated by an operation/parking study for the uses or buildings. To qualify for approval, off-site parking must:

a.    Be located not more than 500 feet from at least one of the building entrances or the use, if no building on the property that it is intended to serve, except that valet parking and parking for restaurants in the VAB if relying on municipal parking lots may be further from the building entrance.

b.    Indicate where signs identifying the authorized parking users and if shared parking, how the parking spaces are to be used will be allocated, either in writing or on a diagram.

c.    If off-site parking is shared the following also apply:

i.    Have a shared parking agreement, on the City’s form, and filed with the parking lot permit application. The agreement’s terms must provide for parking availability for the duration of the applicant’s tenancy of their use and designate whether shared or exclusive and if shared how shared as well as evidence that the parking lot is large enough to accommodate all users that will rely upon the parking supply.

ii.    A restrictive covenant must be entered into by the shared lot’s property owners in a form acceptable to the City Attorney to be recorded with the Waukesha County register of deeds upon the subject properties to ensure that future owners are informed of restrictions resulting from the administration of this section.

iii.    Satisfy the total parking requirements of the properties proposed to be served.

E.    Reduction Request. Due to the particularities of any given land or building use, the parking supply requirements may result in excess parking. Therefore, deviation from the requirements may be authorized by the Common Council upon recommendation from the Plan Commission.

1.    Modification of the standards may be requested by an applicant or initiated by the Plan Commission. Plan Commission initiation occurs when it believes the parking supply schedule results in a parking oversupply based on the numbers indicated in the plan and method of operation application. This evaluation will be made as part of the plan and method application review. Before making its recommendation, the Plan Commission may require an operations/parking demand study as described in subsection (B)(4) of this section which if the applicant requests the modification, will be obtained and paid for by the applicant, and if on the Commission’s request, obtained and paid for by the City. Whenever the Plan Commission determines modification is necessary it will provide written rationale for the modifications per the standards outlined in subsection (E)(2) of this section based upon information supplied by City staff or from the operations/parking study if there is one.

2.    Standards for Approving Parking Supply Modification Requests. The Plan Commission must find at least one from items listed in subsections (E)(2)(a) through (E)(2)(c) of this section and the item in subsection (E)(2)(d) of this section:

a.    The standard parking supply requirement would result in wasteful or less efficient use of property that could better be used for additional building development, for creating or preserving environmental features, or enhancing aesthetically pleasing open space.

b.    A reduction will not create traffic congestion or parking on adjacent properties based on the numbers of occupants stated in the study.

c.    A reduction results in the redevelopment of the property, remediation of an environmentally polluted property or an opportunity within the neighborhood to create a walkable, resilient, as it is defined at Chapter 17.04, or sustainable development, all consistent with the goals and objectives of the Comprehensive Plan. In this subsection, “sustainable” means integrating energy efficiency, sensitivity to negative impacts on the environment, or the use or reuse of renewable material or power sources in the design and construction or renovation of buildings and other similar measures.

d.    The subject property is more than 500 feet from a local minor street, as defined in Chapter 16.04, that accesses a single-family residential neighborhood. (Ord. 2888-24 § 4 (Exh. A), 2024)

Repealed by Ord. 2021-111617. (Prior code § 17.14(2))

Repealed by Ord. 2888-24. (Prior code § 17.14(3))

Repealed by Ord. 2888-24. (Ord. 2021-092105 § 2, 2021; prior code § 17.14(4))

In any off-street parking area located in a nonresidential district, no parking, driveways, loading spaces, paving or vehicle storage shall be permitted within 25 feet of an abutting residential district, except where the specific regulations of the district in which the use is located require a greater offset or permit a different offset or where the intensive use regulations of Section 17.108.090 apply. No parking, driveways, loading spaces, paving or vehicle storage may be located in the offset. (Ord. 2021-092105 § 3, 2021; prior code § 17.14(5))

A minimum 25-foot setback is required for parking areas, to be measured from the base setback line, unless specific regulations of the district permit otherwise. No parking, driveways, loading spaces, paving or vehicle storage may be located in the setback. (Ord. 2021-092105 § 4, 2021; Ord. 2575-19 § 3, 2019: prior code § 17.14(6))

All exterior illumination of parking lots, commercial buildings, multifamily buildings of more than four units, institutional and mixed-use developments are intended to be covered by this section.

A.    Illumination of off-street parking areas shall be arranged so as not to reflect direct rays of light onto adjacent streets or properties. Lighting shall be considered as restricted to the parking lot if such lighting is so oriented or aimed as to direct no more than one-half of each fixtures maximum luminous intensity, measured in footcandles, outside the exterior limits of the property, unless the illumination level, in footcandles at such exterior limits measured at any plane, is less than .5 footcandles. The total illumination level produced on the property shall not exceed an average of five footcandles in any plane.

B.    No individual light shall exceed four hundred (400) watts.

C.    The total height of light fixtures, including bases, shall not exceed the roofline of the building or twenty (20) feet, whichever is less, except in parking lots and along streets or service streets serving regional shopping centers and buildings located within five hundred (500) feet of the exterior walls of the regional shopping center, where the total height of light fixtures, including bases, shall not exceed thirty-two (32) feet regardless of any roofline.

D.    All pole heights and light fixtures shall be brought into conformity with this section when fifty (50) percent or more of the poles or light fixtures are changed or replaced on a premises.

E.    Parking lots shall be illuminated by full cutoff fixtures.

F.    Non-cutoff decorative or pedestrian lighting fixtures shall be allowed only to light public sidewalks adjacent to public right-of-way. They shall also be allowed in the established and approved setback of the building(s) in commercial, multi-family buildings of more than four units, institutional, and mixed use developments, except on corner properties where no such light shall be placed within seventy-five (75) feet of the property line abutting residential property. All decorative or pedestrian lighting fixtures shall be affixed with internal reflectors.

G.    Fixtures mounted on building walls shall be shielded or recessed so that the lamp or bulb shall be invisible from a horizontal plane to neighboring residences and streets. Fixtures mounted under canopies, eaves or similar building structures shall be recessed and function as a full cutoff fixture.

H.    Parking lot lighting systems shall be extinguished or reduced to fifty (50) percent no later than thirty (30) minutes after the close of business for the day or after the end of normal office hours for the majority of employees when adjacent to residential districts and when recommended by the plan commission.

I.    Illumination shall not be located within the city right-of-way area unless approved by the board of public works, with comments from the plan commission. This rule shall not apply to public street lighting.

J.    Properties zoned “VAB” village area business are allowed to have lighting encroaching onto public right-of-way, subject to plan commission and board of public works approval, and should have lower-intensity bulbs to meet the intent of this section.

K.    In lieu of box lighting for any application (including parking lots), decorative lighting with cut-off, flat lens fixtures are required.

L.    Illumination for any exterior activity area at a sports entertainment complex must be extinguished by 12:00 a.m. regardless of overall operating hours. (Ord. 2888-24 §§ 12, 13, 2024; Ord. 2524-18 § 1, 2018; Ord. 2068-06 § 5, 2006; Ord. 2001-05 § 1, 2005: Ord. 1886 § 1, 2002)

Lighting on residential properties shall be designed to illuminate specific areas (driveways, entryways, decks, residence facades, landscaping highlights, etc.). Lighting shall not be used to illuminate entire properties. Residential lighting shall be aimed so as to eliminate glare onto neighboring properties. (Ord. 2001-05 § 2, 2005)

A.    Required. In any local business, general business, office and light industry or industrial district, an off-street loading space shall be provided, in addition to the defined off-street parking area, for every ten thousand (10,000) square feet or fraction thereof in excess of three thousand (3,000) square feet of building area, exclusive of storage areas, used for commercial purposes.

B.    Area. Each such loading space shall have an area of at least ten feet wide by forty-five (45) feet long and with a minimum of fourteen (14) feet height clearance. The plan commission may, by a resolution recorded in its minutes, permit exceptions to this requirement if the use and location so warrants. (Prior code § 17.15)