Off-street vehicular parking and loading shall be provided in accordance with the provisions and minimum standards provided in this chapter. These requirements may be increased by the approval authority where necessary to protect public safety and serve the public interest. The intent of this chapter is to:

1.

Promote traffic safety and reduce traffic congestion by assuring adequate places for storing motor vehicles, and for their orderly access to public streets;

2.

Provide aesthetically pleasing and well-maintained parking facilities that facilitate safe connections for pedestrians and other non-motorized forms of transportation;

3.

Prevent the creation of unnecessary impervious surfaces, and apply the use of low-impact design practices where feasible, in order to minimize negative impacts to surface waters.

(Ord. 11398 § 3 (part), 1997: Ord. 7274 § 1 (part), 1982)

(Ord. No. 15355, 1(Att. A, § RR), 10-18-2016)

When off-street parking is required pursuant to TCC [Section] 20.44.030, then the following provisions and standards shall apply:

1.

Review. Required parking facilities shall be shown on the site plan for building permit or hearing examiner approval. This requirement shall not apply when a proposed permit is for single-family detached or for two-family structures with an attached garage for each unit.

2.

Access to Parking Areas.

a.

All parking facilities shall be provided with safe and convenient access to a street. Ingress and egress to public streets shall be provided only through driveway openings of such dimension, location and construction as may be approved by the public works department. Driveway openings onto collector and arterial streets shall conform to adopted standards limiting encroachments onto such streets and shall be combined where possible.

b.

Parking areas for uses other than single-family detached and two-family structures with attached garages shall have access from a clearly limited and defined driveway not less than ten feet wide if for one-way traffic and twenty feet wide if for two-way traffic, and not more than thirty-five feet wide. Exceptions may be granted by the approval authority provided public safety is assured.

c.

Within the Grand Mound, Tenino, Rainier and Yelm unincorporated urban growth areas, access driveways to parking areas described in Section 20.44.020(b), above, shall be surfaced with asphalt, concrete, or other approved non-gravel hard surface so as to provide a surface that is durable and dust free, and shall be so graded and drained as to properly dispose of all surface water. Access driveways may be surfaced with gravel if both of the following criteria apply;

i.

The access driveway and parking area contains only one or two parking spaces; and

ii.

The shortest feasible route between the road access and the parking area is at least one hundred feet in length.

3.

Location of Parking Areas.

a.

Required off-street parking for other than residential uses shall be either on the same lot or within three hundred feet of the building or use it is intended to serve, measured from the nearest point of the building or use to the nearest point of the required off-street parking facility.

b.

On collector or arterial streets, parking areas shall not be located across the street from the use to which they pertain. Exceptions may be granted by the public works director provided public safety is assured.

4.

Use of Designated Parking Areas.

a.

Parking facilities shall be used solely for the parking of vehicles in operating condition. No motor vehicle repair work except emergency service shall be permitted in association with such a parking facility.

b.

Any area once designated as required off-street parking shall not be changed to any other use unless and until equal facilities are provided elsewhere and the approved site plan, if applicable, has been amended to reflect the change or the principal use served by the parking no longer requires such off-street parking.

5.

Landscaping and Lighting.

a.

When parking facilities exceed five thousand square feet, a minimum of ten percent of the total internal parking area shall be set aside for landscaping.

b.

Landscaping islands within parking facilities shall be designed to maximize their ability to function as conveyance, detention, and/or treatment systems for storm water. All parking facilities shall comply with the provisions for landscaping as set forth in Chapter 20.45.

c.

Plant Selection. No tree, shrub, or plants shall be proposed for use within a parking area that has been identified as a noxious weed, as defined by Chapter 16-750 WAC, or an Invasive Species, as defined in TCC [Section] 24.03.010.

d.

Landscaping within parking areas shall be regularly maintained to ensure they continue to properly function as stormwater systems.

e.

All parking facilities shall comply with the provisions for lighting as set forth in Chapter 20.40.

6.

Pre-existing Uses.

a.

Whenever an existing building or use requiring off-street parking is increased in floor area, the number of additional parking spaces required shall be based upon the addition only.

b.

Off-street parking for existing uses shall not be reduced to an amount less than hereinafter required for a similar new building or new use.

7.

Joint and Shared Parking Facilities.

a.

When two or more adjoining land uses or uses within a building have operating hours of users that do not conflict (e.g., an office and a church), total parking may be reduced to the amount required for the more intensive use. Evidence of joint use agreements, assurance from all parties regarding nonconflicting hours of operation or other items may be required by the approval authority prior to such reductions.

b.

When two or more adjoining land uses or uses within a building have similar or overlapping hours of operation, parking requirements may be reduced by no more than fifty percent of the least intensive use. Evidence of joint use agreements, assurance from all parties regarding hours of operation or other items may be required by the approval authority prior to such reductions.

8.

Grand Mound Design Guidelines: See Chapter 20.36.

(Ord. 11804 § 97, 1998; Ord. 11653 § 7, 1998: Ord. 11398 § 3 (part), 1997: Ord. 7274 § 1 (part), 1982)

(Ord. No. 14773, § 10(Att. I), 7-24-2012; Ord. No. 15355, 1(Att. A, § SS), 10-18-2016; Ord. No. 16332, § 2(Att. A, § VII), 12-12-2023)

The number of required off-street parking spaces shall be determined in accordance with the table below. Project applicants may request an administrative modification to increase or decrease the number of parking spaces otherwise required by this chapter. No modification is required to increase or decrease the number of required spaces by up to ten percent. Modifications greater than forty percent may only be granted by the hearing examiner and only pursuant to the criteria of TCC Chapter 14.32.

1.

The following table shall be used to determine required parking spaces:

2.

When determining the number of required parking spaces for a particular use or building results in a fractional space, any fraction less than one-half shall be disregarded and any fraction of one-half or over shall be counted as one space.

3.

The off-street parking requirements for uses not specifically mentioned in this section shall be the same as the use most similar from the standpoint of parking needs, unless the hearing examiner finds such requirements to be unreasonable as applied to the proposed use, in which case the hearing examiner shall prescribe reasonable requirements for the use.

4.

Parking requirements for disabled persons. Accessible parking spaces shall be provided in accordance with the Thurston County Building Code, Chapter 14.17. Required accessible parking spaces shall be included in the calculation of the total number of spaces.

5.

Administrative modifications.

a.

Reducing minimum requirements. A modification to reduce the number of required parking spaces within the range of ten percent to forty percent shall be considered by the approval authority when:

i.

The applicant is able to demonstrate to the satisfaction of the approval authority that fewer spaces are needed based on a parking demand study prepared by the applicant or consultant; or

ii.

When on-street parking is available and approved; or

iii.

For multi-family housing, public and semipublic facilities (including schools and hospitals), offices, retail, or commercial uses where alternative transportation options such as transit are located within a one-quarter-mile walk to the development, or will be within six months; or

iv.

For joint facilities when operating hours do overlap, up to fifty percent reduction.

b.

Increasing maximum requirements. For administrative modifications of greater than ten percent, the approval authority may allow more than the maximum number of parking spaces when:

i.

Parking is contained in an aboveground or underground structure, and does not increase total impervious surfaces on the lot; or

ii.

The applicant is able to demonstrate to the satisfaction of the approval authority that more spaces are needed based on a parking demand study prepared by the applicant or consultant; and

iii.

Parking spaces above the minimum are constructed of pervious paving surfaces, in accordance with the Drainage Manual, if feasible.

c.

Modifications may be denied or altered if the approval author has reason to believe based on experience and existing development practices that the proposed modification may lead to excessive or inadequate parking or may inhibit or prevent regular and intended functions of either the proposed or existing use, or adjacent uses.

(Ord. 11398 § 3 (part), 1997: Ord. 7274 § 1 (part), 1982)

(Ord. No. 15355, 1(Att. A, § TT), 10-18-2016)

Whenever off-street parking is required, the parking area and space shall be designed, constructed and maintained in accordance with the following minimum provisions and standards:

1.

When more than two spaces are required, the following standards and provisions, in addition to those provided in Sections 20.44.020 and 20.44.030, shall apply:

2.

Angled parking with one-way aisles shall be utilized where possible to reduce the total impervious area.

3.

Surfacing.

a.

Within the Grand Mound, Tenino, Rainier, and Yelm unincorporated urban growth areas parking spaces shall be surfaced with asphalt, concrete, or other approved dust-free hard surface.

b.

Outside urban growth areas, parking areas shall be surfaced with asphalt, concrete, compacted gravel or other approved hard surface.

c.

Parking spaces included in the site plan which are above the maximum number of spaces required in this Section or that are used infrequently (less than thirty days per year) shall be constructed of an alternative paving surface unless site and soil conditions make pervious surfacing infeasible, as determined by the approval authority. The alternative paving surface shall be designed and constructed to not track material into the public right-of-way and in accordance with the Drainage Design and Erosion Control Manual (current edition) and the manufacturer's recommendations. A maintenance agreement may be required to ensure such surface is properly maintained.

4.

Hard surface parking areas shall use paint, paving bricks, or similar devices to delineate parking spaces. Areas paved with lattice block pavement, gravel, or grass parking areas shall use wood or concrete wheel guards or wheel stops at the end of parking spaces or paving bricks, concrete strips or similar devices on the sides of spaces to delineate parking spaces.

5.

All parking spaces shall be designed to prevent egress by backing out onto any state highway, collector or arterial street.

6.

Bumper stops, curbing or wheel chocks shall be provided to prevent any vehicle from damaging or encroaching upon any sidewalk or upon any building adjacent to the parking area. Curbing shall be designed to allow drainage into landscaped areas and stormwater facilities.

7.

All parking spaces shall be nine feet in width and eighteen feet in length. At the developer's option, a maximum thirty-five percent may be marked "compact only" with a dimension of seven and one-half feet by fifteen feet. At the developer's option, ten percent may be marked "oversize" with a dimension of nine feet in width by twenty feet in length.

8.

Parallel parking spaces shall be twenty feet in length and eight feet in width, with maneuvering space of three feet for every two vehicles. Driveways and other spaces not occupied by parking may be used to obtain the required maneuvering space.

(Ord. 11804 § 98, 1998: Ord. 11398 § 3 (part), 1997: Ord. 10610 § 5, 1994: Ord. 9859 § 14, 1991: Ord. 7274 § 1 (part), 1982)

(Ord. No. 14773, § 10(Att. I), 7-24-2012; Ord. No. 15355, 1(Att. A, § UU), 10-18-2016)

When off-street loading and unloading spaces are required, the following provisions and standards shall apply:

1.

There shall be access to each loading and unloading space and on-site maneuvering space of not less than fifty-two feet in length adjacent to the loading dock, and this space shall not include any area designated for off-street parking.

2.

All maneuvering areas, ramps, access drives, etc., shall be provided on the property on which the parking facility is located.

3.

All loading and unloading spaces shall be a minimum of forty-five feet in length, ten feet in width and fifteen feet in height.

(Ord. 11398 § 3 (part), 1997: Ord. 7274 § 1 (part), 1982)

All commercial, industrial, institutional, and recreational uses which require twenty-five or more parking spaces, pursuant to this Section shall provide a designated bicycle parking area to accommodate a minimum of five bicycle spaces. Such bicycle parking areas shall provide a secure facility (e.g., rack, posts) to which to lock bicycles and shall be located so as to be reasonably convenient to the onsite use and not interfere with pedestrian and automobile traffic. Bicycle racks shall be covered in such a manner as to protect the entire bicycle from rain and installed to provide adequate maneuvering space and ensure that the requisite bicycle parking spaces remain accessible. Prior to issuing permits for facilities requiring one hundred or more parking spaces pursuant to this Section and/or uses with high expected bicycle traffic (e.g., schools) the approval authority may require reasonable additional bicycle parking capacity over and above the minimum five spaces.

(Ord. No. 15355, 1(Att. A, § VV), 10-18-2016)