Rockaway Township City Zoning Code
§ 54-30.12
Off-street parking and loading.
[Ord. No. 95-24 § 54-110; Ord. No. 99-19 § 2; Ord. No. 05-2 § 1; Ord. No. 09-13 § 1; Ord. No. 11-18]
All off-street parking and loading areas constructed within the Township shall meet the following provisions:
A.
General.
(1)
Except as permitted otherwise below for shared parking facilities, all off-street parking and loading facilities shall be located on the same lot with the building that such facilities serve.
(2)
Except as permitted otherwise below for shared parking facilities, no driveway shall be permitted to serve any use other than the permitted use on the lot upon which the driveway is located.
(3)
All parking areas and residential driveways shall be used only for parking of automobiles. No commercial repair work or sales of any kind shall be conducted in any parking area. Nothing herein contained shall be construed to permit any required parking area to be used for the commercial storage of new or used motor vehicles by a new or used car dealer or motor vehicle rental agency.
(4)
Loading areas may be used for additional parking; however, all parking requirements must be met outside the loading areas.
(5)
Areas provided for loading and unloading of delivery trucks and other vehicles, for solid waste collection and for other types of routine service shall be adequate in size and so arranged that they may be used without blocking roadways or access to parking areas.
B.
Parking for single-family detached dwellings and two-family dwellings.
(1)
Off-street parking for single-family detached and two-family residential uses is permitted in any front, side or rear yard, provided that no vehicle shall be parked in any front yard except in the driveway area leading from the street upon which the subject premises is located.
(2)
Driveway width. Driveways for single-family detached dwellings and two-family dwellings shall have a minimum paved width of 10 feet, and shall not exceed a paved width of 22 feet, except as needed to provide a turnaround area as required herein.
(3)
Driveway slope. Driveways for single-family detached dwellings and two-family dwellings shall comply with the following slope regulations:
(a)
No driveway shall be constructed in the R-20AC, R-5AC or R-88 district that exceeds a grade of 10%.
(b)
No driveway shall be constructed in the R-20 or R-13 districts that exceeds a grade of 12.5%.
(c)
Notwithstanding the above requirements, all driveways for single-family detached dwellings and two-family dwellings shall not exceed a slope of 5% within 20 feet of the street pavement, or within 20 feet of any garage that may exist on the property.
(4)
For any property which fronts upon a neighborhood through road, collector road or arterial road as designated in the Township Master Plan, residential driveways shall be designed so that all vehicles may turn around within the property and thus prevent the necessity of any vehicle backing into the street.
(5)
Within six months of the issuance of the first certificate of occupancy, all parking areas and driveways for residential uses in residential districts shall be surfaced with bituminous concrete pavement with a three-inch granular subbase and 1.5 inch surface course mix number 5, or the equivalent as approved by the Township Engineer.
Residential driveways are required at a minimum to be paved, in accordance with the above standards, from the roadway to the right-of-way and then an additional 50 feet back from the right-of-way.
(6)
Required parking spaces. In the R-20AC, R-5AC, R-88, R-20 and R-13 residential districts, provision shall be made for at least three off-street parking spaces for each dwelling unit.
C.
Parking for other uses.
(1)
Number of parking spaces.
(a)
Single-family attached dwelling units or multifamily dwelling units shall require the following number of off-street parking spaces:
[1]
Every dwelling unit containing three or more bedrooms shall require 2.5 parking spaces per unit.
[2]
Every dwelling unit containing two bedrooms shall require two parking spaces per unit.
[3]
Every dwelling unit containing less than two bedrooms shall require 1.5 parking spaces per unit.
[4]
Dwelling units specifically designed for and restricted to housing for the elderly shall require 1.25 parking spaces per unit.
(b)
All permitted uses in the R-P, B-1, B-2, O-1, O-2, OR-3, OB-RL, PED, I and M districts, and all nonresidential uses permitted in the residential districts shall require the following number of off-street parking spaces. The following parking standards shall apply for all uses, provided that paragraph C(1)(c) below shall be applicable for use in the R-B district:
(c)
In the R-B district, all uses shall require the following number of off-street parking spaces:
[1]
One parking space shall be required for each 200 square feet of gross floor area of all buildings exclusive of the mall building.
[2]
The mall building shall require one parking space for each 250 square feet of gross floor area. To qualify as a mall building within the R-B district, there must be a minimum ground coverage of not less than 400,000 square feet.
[3]
Offices on other than the first floor in the mall building shall require one parking space for every 400 square feet of gross floor area devoted to the office use.
D.
Shared parking. The required parking provisions of this section may be met by participating in a joint parking program involving two or more nonresidential uses; provided, however, that plans for such a joint program shall have been approved by the Planning Board, and provided further that the area for the parking facilities shall equal the collective parking area requirements of the participating properties to be served.
E.
Off-street loading. Any nonresidential use involving manufacturing, storage or warehousing, display of goods, retail or wholesale sales, or any other use similarly requiring the receipt or distribution of materials or merchandise, there shall be provided and maintained on the same premises with such use off-street loading space(s) as required below:
(1)
Buildings with less than 5,000 square feet of gross floor area shall require at least one loading space.
(2)
Buildings with at least 5,000 square feet of gross floor area shall require one additional loading space for each 20,000 square feet of gross floor area, or fraction thereof, above the first 5,000 square feet of gross floor area.
F.
Exemptions; reserve parking set aside.
(1)
If any applicant can clearly demonstrate to the Board that, because of the nature of his operation or use, the parking and loading requirements of this section are unnecessary or excessive, the Planning Board shall have the power to approve a site plan showing less paved parking area than is required by this section; provided, however, that a landscaped area of sufficient size to meet the deficiency shall be set aside and reserved for the purposes of meeting future off-street parking and loading requirements in the event that a change of use of the premises shall make such additional off-street parking or loading spaces necessary.
(2)
In order for the Planning Board or Board of Adjustment to grant a parking or loading pavement exemption as set forth in paragraph (1) above, the applicant shall present the following documentation:
(a)
Traffic engineering studies of parking demand for the proposed land use;
(b)
Experiences of similar land use activities in the immediate area or in similar suburban communities; and/or,
(c)
Information concerning the use characteristics of the proposed tenant, including hours of operation, numbers of employees and visitors, numbers and frequencies of deliveries and shipments, types of vehicles involved in making deliveries and shipments, etc.
(3)
No certificate of occupancy shall be issued for a change of use on a property which has previously been exempted from providing all of the required parking or loading spaces, unless the Board has reviewed and approved a site plan for the change of use, and has determined that sufficient parking and loading spaces exist to serve the proposed use.