- OFF-STREET PARKING AND LOADING83
Adopted August 18, 2009.
The provisions of Article VII shall apply to any application for a development permit, building permit, certificate of occupancy, zoning, special/conditional use permits, vested rights certificates, subdivision and site plan approvals.
1.
If the expansion is less than fifty percent of Gross Floor Area (GFA) of the existing structure, additional off street parking and loading spaces shall be required to serve only the enlarged or expanded area, provided that in all cases the number of off street parking and loading spaces provided for the entire use (pre-existing plus expansion) must be equal to at least seventy-five percent of the required minimum spaces established by this Ordinance.
2.
If the expansion is greater than fifty percent of the GFA of any existing structure, additional off street parking and loading must meet one hundred percent of the required minimum number of spaces for the entire use.
3.
Off street parking and loading spaces must be provided for any change in uses or manner of operation that would result in a requirement for more parking or loading spaces that the existing use.
4.
Off site parking areas that constitute the principal use of the site shall comply with all of the design standards of this Ordinance.
5.
The Board of Commissioners may authorize a variance from these regulations when, in its opinion, undue hardship may result from strict compliance. In granting the variance, the Board of Commissioners shall make findings required below, taking into account the nature of the proposed facility, the existing use of land in the vicinity, the number of persons to work in the proposed facility, and the probable effect of the proposed facility upon traffic conditions in the vicinity. Variance requests shall be initiated in writing by the property owner prior to the Planning Board meeting. The Planning Board shall forward a recommendation to the Board of Commissioners. The owner shall specify the reason for the request. No variance shall be granted unless the Board of Commissioners finds:
a)
that there are special circumstances or conditions affecting said property; such that the strict application of the provisions of this ordinance would deprive the applicant of the reasonable use of his land.
b)
that the circumstances giving rise to the need for the variance is peculiar to the parcel and are not generally characteristic of other parcels in the jurisdiction.
A.
Calculation of Required Parking.
1.
Each application for a Development Permit for a use other than single family residential shall include information as to the location and dimensions of off street parking and loading space and the means of ingress and egress.
2.
Unless otherwise approved, lots containing more than one use must provide parking and loading equal to the total amount required by all uses.
3.
When measurements of the number of required spaces result in a fractional number, any fraction 0.5 or greater shall be rounded to the nearest whole number.
4.
Unless otherwise noted all square footage based parking shall be computed based on GFA.
5.
For computing parking requirements based on employees, calculations shall be calculated based on largest number of persons working on any single shift, or the maximum fire rated capacity, whichever is greater.
6.
Requirements based on the number of seats shall be calculated on the design capacity of the space where seating is located.
7.
The Planning Board may waive the maximum parking space requirement when it is demonstrated that a particular land use requires parking exceeding the maximum number of spaces listed in the Off Street Parking Requirements table. The Planning Board may require and information as necessary to evaluate if a modification to the maximum number of parking spaces should be granted.
B.
Design Standards.
1.
Location—Required off street parking spaces shall be provided on the same lot as the use or within a distance of 300 feet from the use provided such parking space land is owned by the same owner as the use being considered.
2.
Use of off street parking—Required off street parking areas are to be used only for parking of licensed vehicles in operating condition. Required spaces may not be used for the display of goods for sale, except for approved vehicle sales and rental, or for long term storage of vehicles, boats, motor homes, campers, manufactured homes or building materials provided adequate parking is provided.
3.
Division of large parking areas—Any parking areas containing more than fifty spaces shall be visually subdivided into smaller parking lots, a maximum of ten thousand square feet in area or total of twenty-five spaces (whichever is less). The subdivision may be accomplished using buildings, planting areas, plazas, courtyards, or landscaped islands. Rows of parking spaces exceeding 15 shall be visually divided by a parking lot landscaped island.
4.
Landscaping—Landscaping shall be required in accordance with this Ordinance.
5.
Lighting—Lighting sources shall be designed and installed in accordance with this Ordinance.
6.
Type of surface—All required parking areas in excess of ten spaces, loading areas and vehicular traffic surface areas shall be graded for drainage and shall be surfaced with concrete or bituminous asphalt except as allowed for overflow parking and assembly uses. Alternative materials may be approved by the Planning Board. Alternative materials shall only be considered if such materials exhibit equivalent load bearing and wear characteristics as concrete or asphalt. All other parking areas with ten or fewer spaces shall have a gravel surface consisting of at least four inches of crushed stone. All parking surfaces shall be maintained in sound condition free of weeds, dust, trash and debris, potholes and other hazards. Paving shall not be required for any use listed within any Residential zone or Heavy Industry zone.
7.
Paving exemption for assembly uses—Paving and stripping for assembly uses (churches, sports facilities, fairgrounds, etc.) may be waived if evidence is presented to the Planning Board that these spaces will not be used regularly on a daily basis or less than five times per week. Parking areas for which paving is waived shall maintain a turf surface. All drive aisles serving the principal use shall be paved to provide a dust free access to the road. All parking areas for which paving is waived shall meet the minimum requirements of Volumes I-C and V of the North Carolina Building Code for Accessibility and Fire Prevention. All parking areas shall be constructed with proper drainage.
8.
Overflow Parking—Overflow parking areas and event parking may use turf or other pervious surfaces. Overflow parking shall be defined as off street parking in excess of the minimum required by this Ordinance, not used more than ten times a year.
9.
Overhang protection—Wheel guards, bumper guards or curbing shall be provided located and arranged so that no part of any parked vehicles will extend beyond the boundaries of the parking space into a landscaped buffer, pedestrian crossing or way. Except where a wall is constructed, a minimum six inch high vertical concrete curb shall be constructed or installed so that no part of a parked vehicle extends beyond the property line.
10.
Parking Space Marking—All paved off street parking spaces shall be stripped to provide not less than the minimum space as listed below exclusive of access drives and maneuvering space and must be visible at all times. All other spaces shall be clearly marked with curb stops.
11.
Backing space movements prohibited—Except for single and two family dwellings on individual lots, parking spaces and driveways shall be arranged to require ingress and egress from the lot to the public street by forward motion of the vehicle.
12.
Right of way use prohibited—No portion of any street or railroad right of way shall be considered as fulfilling any area requirements for any off street parking space.
13.
Permanent space required—All required off street parking spaces shall be permanent.
14.
Handicapped parking spaces required—All land uses required by the North Carolina State Building Code to provide handicapped parking spaces shall meet the requirements of Section 4.2.1 of the North Carolina Accessibility Code.
15.
Interconnectivity Required—All parking lots shall dedicate access easements and provide interconnectivity to adjoining properties where such connections are practical. The Planning Board may waive this requirement when it is demonstrated that topographical, incompatibility of land uses or other factors make such connections impractical.
16.
Parking Space size—A minimum of fifty percent of all parking spaces shall be 10 feet wide and 20 feet long. Twenty-five percent may be nine feet wide and eighteen feet long. Twenty-five percent may be eight feet wide and sixteen feet long.
TABLE 1. SPACE AND AISLE SIZE
TABLE 2. OFF STREET PARKING REQUIREMENTS
C.
Uses Not Listed.
The Planning Board shall determine the parking requirements for uses not found in the Off Street Parking Requirements table. In such instances, the applicant shall provide adequate information by which the proposal can be reviewed, which shall include, but may not be limited to the following:
1.
Type of uses(s);
2.
Number of employees;
3.
Occupant load (per building code) of the building;
4.
Square feet of sales, service and storage areas;
5.
Parking spaces proposed on site; and
6.
Hours of operation.
D.
Shared Parking.
Off street parking requirements of a given use may be shared with off street parking of another use when all of the following conditions are met:
1.
If the use is in a non-residential zoning district, the off site parking may be up to three hundred feet from the principal structure;
2.
The parking demands of the individual uses, as determined by the Planning Department, based on the minimum off street parking requirements, are such that the total parking demand of all the uses at any one time is less that the total parking spaces required;
3.
A written agreement between the owners and lessees is executed for a minimum of five years, approved by the County Attorney, recorded in the Register of Deeds and a copy maintained in the project file; should the lease expire or otherwise terminate, the use for which the off site parking was provided shall be considered to contain nonconforming site improvements; future expansion of the use shall be prohibited unless the use is brought into compliance with the parking regulations of this Ordinance.
4.
Developments which contain a mix of uses on the same parcel, as set forth on the table below may reduce the amount of required parking in accordance with the following methodology:
• Determine the minimum parking requirements in accordance with the Off Street parking requirements table for each land use as if it were a separate use;
• Multiply each amount by the corresponding percentages for each of the five time periods set forth in each column;
• Calculate the total for each time period (columns);
• Select the column with the highest total;
• Use this number as the required minimum number of parking spaces.
TABLE 3. SHARED PARKING ALLOWANCE BY LAND USE
Notes: Daytime = 6 am—5 pm, Evening = 5 pm—midnight, Nighttime = midnight—6 am
Every building or structure used for business, trade or industry, constructed after the adoption of this ordinance, shall provide space for the loading and unloading of vehicles. These spaces shall be designed so that the vehicles loading and unloading shall not rest upon or across any public street right-of-way. All off-street loading spaces shall be at least twelve (12) feet wide, thirty (30) feet long and have an overhead clearance of fourteen (14) feet. Adequate means of ingress and egress must also be provided. Retail, wholesale and industrial establishments shall provide one (1) off-street loading and unloading space for the first two thousand, five hundred (2,500) square feet of gross floor space and one (1) additional for each additional twenty thousand (20,000) square feet of gross floor space.
a.
The number of loading spaces may be modified during the review if the applicant can demonstrate a limited need for loading space.
b.
All loading spaces shall be as much as possible to the rear or side of the lot. No loading area shall be located in the required front setback.
c.
Loading areas visible from the public right of way shall be screened.
d.
An occupied loading space shall not prevent access to a required off street parking space or parking aisle.
e.
Required off street loading areas are to be used solely for loading and unloading of goods.
f.
Paving of loading areas in the rear of the lot may be waived by the Planning Board upon approval of a site plan.
Some uses listed above will have drive-up windows. These uses will have a location to pick up goods and may have a separate location to order goods. In the design of a parking space a provision should be made for the stacking of vehicles on the property or the use. The stacking area should be designed to avoid a backup of vehicles on to the public right of way. The uses listed below establish minimum standards. Variances may be requested during the site plan review process.
TABLE 4. VEHICLE STACKING AREA REQUIREMENTS
The design standard for the Stacking requirements will include:
1.
Required stacking spaces shall be a minimum of eight feet wide by twenty feet long with a vertical clearance of ten feet.
2.
All stacking space shall be located on private property, in as much as possible to the rear or side of the lot. In no case shall a stacking space be arranged or located in any way that impedes on of off site traffic movements into or out of off street parking spaces.
3.
Stacking spaces shall be separated from the internal driveway, by raised medians if deemed necessary for traffic movement and safety.
- OFF-STREET PARKING AND LOADING83
Adopted August 18, 2009.
The provisions of Article VII shall apply to any application for a development permit, building permit, certificate of occupancy, zoning, special/conditional use permits, vested rights certificates, subdivision and site plan approvals.
1.
If the expansion is less than fifty percent of Gross Floor Area (GFA) of the existing structure, additional off street parking and loading spaces shall be required to serve only the enlarged or expanded area, provided that in all cases the number of off street parking and loading spaces provided for the entire use (pre-existing plus expansion) must be equal to at least seventy-five percent of the required minimum spaces established by this Ordinance.
2.
If the expansion is greater than fifty percent of the GFA of any existing structure, additional off street parking and loading must meet one hundred percent of the required minimum number of spaces for the entire use.
3.
Off street parking and loading spaces must be provided for any change in uses or manner of operation that would result in a requirement for more parking or loading spaces that the existing use.
4.
Off site parking areas that constitute the principal use of the site shall comply with all of the design standards of this Ordinance.
5.
The Board of Commissioners may authorize a variance from these regulations when, in its opinion, undue hardship may result from strict compliance. In granting the variance, the Board of Commissioners shall make findings required below, taking into account the nature of the proposed facility, the existing use of land in the vicinity, the number of persons to work in the proposed facility, and the probable effect of the proposed facility upon traffic conditions in the vicinity. Variance requests shall be initiated in writing by the property owner prior to the Planning Board meeting. The Planning Board shall forward a recommendation to the Board of Commissioners. The owner shall specify the reason for the request. No variance shall be granted unless the Board of Commissioners finds:
a)
that there are special circumstances or conditions affecting said property; such that the strict application of the provisions of this ordinance would deprive the applicant of the reasonable use of his land.
b)
that the circumstances giving rise to the need for the variance is peculiar to the parcel and are not generally characteristic of other parcels in the jurisdiction.
A.
Calculation of Required Parking.
1.
Each application for a Development Permit for a use other than single family residential shall include information as to the location and dimensions of off street parking and loading space and the means of ingress and egress.
2.
Unless otherwise approved, lots containing more than one use must provide parking and loading equal to the total amount required by all uses.
3.
When measurements of the number of required spaces result in a fractional number, any fraction 0.5 or greater shall be rounded to the nearest whole number.
4.
Unless otherwise noted all square footage based parking shall be computed based on GFA.
5.
For computing parking requirements based on employees, calculations shall be calculated based on largest number of persons working on any single shift, or the maximum fire rated capacity, whichever is greater.
6.
Requirements based on the number of seats shall be calculated on the design capacity of the space where seating is located.
7.
The Planning Board may waive the maximum parking space requirement when it is demonstrated that a particular land use requires parking exceeding the maximum number of spaces listed in the Off Street Parking Requirements table. The Planning Board may require and information as necessary to evaluate if a modification to the maximum number of parking spaces should be granted.
B.
Design Standards.
1.
Location—Required off street parking spaces shall be provided on the same lot as the use or within a distance of 300 feet from the use provided such parking space land is owned by the same owner as the use being considered.
2.
Use of off street parking—Required off street parking areas are to be used only for parking of licensed vehicles in operating condition. Required spaces may not be used for the display of goods for sale, except for approved vehicle sales and rental, or for long term storage of vehicles, boats, motor homes, campers, manufactured homes or building materials provided adequate parking is provided.
3.
Division of large parking areas—Any parking areas containing more than fifty spaces shall be visually subdivided into smaller parking lots, a maximum of ten thousand square feet in area or total of twenty-five spaces (whichever is less). The subdivision may be accomplished using buildings, planting areas, plazas, courtyards, or landscaped islands. Rows of parking spaces exceeding 15 shall be visually divided by a parking lot landscaped island.
4.
Landscaping—Landscaping shall be required in accordance with this Ordinance.
5.
Lighting—Lighting sources shall be designed and installed in accordance with this Ordinance.
6.
Type of surface—All required parking areas in excess of ten spaces, loading areas and vehicular traffic surface areas shall be graded for drainage and shall be surfaced with concrete or bituminous asphalt except as allowed for overflow parking and assembly uses. Alternative materials may be approved by the Planning Board. Alternative materials shall only be considered if such materials exhibit equivalent load bearing and wear characteristics as concrete or asphalt. All other parking areas with ten or fewer spaces shall have a gravel surface consisting of at least four inches of crushed stone. All parking surfaces shall be maintained in sound condition free of weeds, dust, trash and debris, potholes and other hazards. Paving shall not be required for any use listed within any Residential zone or Heavy Industry zone.
7.
Paving exemption for assembly uses—Paving and stripping for assembly uses (churches, sports facilities, fairgrounds, etc.) may be waived if evidence is presented to the Planning Board that these spaces will not be used regularly on a daily basis or less than five times per week. Parking areas for which paving is waived shall maintain a turf surface. All drive aisles serving the principal use shall be paved to provide a dust free access to the road. All parking areas for which paving is waived shall meet the minimum requirements of Volumes I-C and V of the North Carolina Building Code for Accessibility and Fire Prevention. All parking areas shall be constructed with proper drainage.
8.
Overflow Parking—Overflow parking areas and event parking may use turf or other pervious surfaces. Overflow parking shall be defined as off street parking in excess of the minimum required by this Ordinance, not used more than ten times a year.
9.
Overhang protection—Wheel guards, bumper guards or curbing shall be provided located and arranged so that no part of any parked vehicles will extend beyond the boundaries of the parking space into a landscaped buffer, pedestrian crossing or way. Except where a wall is constructed, a minimum six inch high vertical concrete curb shall be constructed or installed so that no part of a parked vehicle extends beyond the property line.
10.
Parking Space Marking—All paved off street parking spaces shall be stripped to provide not less than the minimum space as listed below exclusive of access drives and maneuvering space and must be visible at all times. All other spaces shall be clearly marked with curb stops.
11.
Backing space movements prohibited—Except for single and two family dwellings on individual lots, parking spaces and driveways shall be arranged to require ingress and egress from the lot to the public street by forward motion of the vehicle.
12.
Right of way use prohibited—No portion of any street or railroad right of way shall be considered as fulfilling any area requirements for any off street parking space.
13.
Permanent space required—All required off street parking spaces shall be permanent.
14.
Handicapped parking spaces required—All land uses required by the North Carolina State Building Code to provide handicapped parking spaces shall meet the requirements of Section 4.2.1 of the North Carolina Accessibility Code.
15.
Interconnectivity Required—All parking lots shall dedicate access easements and provide interconnectivity to adjoining properties where such connections are practical. The Planning Board may waive this requirement when it is demonstrated that topographical, incompatibility of land uses or other factors make such connections impractical.
16.
Parking Space size—A minimum of fifty percent of all parking spaces shall be 10 feet wide and 20 feet long. Twenty-five percent may be nine feet wide and eighteen feet long. Twenty-five percent may be eight feet wide and sixteen feet long.
TABLE 1. SPACE AND AISLE SIZE
TABLE 2. OFF STREET PARKING REQUIREMENTS
C.
Uses Not Listed.
The Planning Board shall determine the parking requirements for uses not found in the Off Street Parking Requirements table. In such instances, the applicant shall provide adequate information by which the proposal can be reviewed, which shall include, but may not be limited to the following:
1.
Type of uses(s);
2.
Number of employees;
3.
Occupant load (per building code) of the building;
4.
Square feet of sales, service and storage areas;
5.
Parking spaces proposed on site; and
6.
Hours of operation.
D.
Shared Parking.
Off street parking requirements of a given use may be shared with off street parking of another use when all of the following conditions are met:
1.
If the use is in a non-residential zoning district, the off site parking may be up to three hundred feet from the principal structure;
2.
The parking demands of the individual uses, as determined by the Planning Department, based on the minimum off street parking requirements, are such that the total parking demand of all the uses at any one time is less that the total parking spaces required;
3.
A written agreement between the owners and lessees is executed for a minimum of five years, approved by the County Attorney, recorded in the Register of Deeds and a copy maintained in the project file; should the lease expire or otherwise terminate, the use for which the off site parking was provided shall be considered to contain nonconforming site improvements; future expansion of the use shall be prohibited unless the use is brought into compliance with the parking regulations of this Ordinance.
4.
Developments which contain a mix of uses on the same parcel, as set forth on the table below may reduce the amount of required parking in accordance with the following methodology:
• Determine the minimum parking requirements in accordance with the Off Street parking requirements table for each land use as if it were a separate use;
• Multiply each amount by the corresponding percentages for each of the five time periods set forth in each column;
• Calculate the total for each time period (columns);
• Select the column with the highest total;
• Use this number as the required minimum number of parking spaces.
TABLE 3. SHARED PARKING ALLOWANCE BY LAND USE
Notes: Daytime = 6 am—5 pm, Evening = 5 pm—midnight, Nighttime = midnight—6 am
Every building or structure used for business, trade or industry, constructed after the adoption of this ordinance, shall provide space for the loading and unloading of vehicles. These spaces shall be designed so that the vehicles loading and unloading shall not rest upon or across any public street right-of-way. All off-street loading spaces shall be at least twelve (12) feet wide, thirty (30) feet long and have an overhead clearance of fourteen (14) feet. Adequate means of ingress and egress must also be provided. Retail, wholesale and industrial establishments shall provide one (1) off-street loading and unloading space for the first two thousand, five hundred (2,500) square feet of gross floor space and one (1) additional for each additional twenty thousand (20,000) square feet of gross floor space.
a.
The number of loading spaces may be modified during the review if the applicant can demonstrate a limited need for loading space.
b.
All loading spaces shall be as much as possible to the rear or side of the lot. No loading area shall be located in the required front setback.
c.
Loading areas visible from the public right of way shall be screened.
d.
An occupied loading space shall not prevent access to a required off street parking space or parking aisle.
e.
Required off street loading areas are to be used solely for loading and unloading of goods.
f.
Paving of loading areas in the rear of the lot may be waived by the Planning Board upon approval of a site plan.
Some uses listed above will have drive-up windows. These uses will have a location to pick up goods and may have a separate location to order goods. In the design of a parking space a provision should be made for the stacking of vehicles on the property or the use. The stacking area should be designed to avoid a backup of vehicles on to the public right of way. The uses listed below establish minimum standards. Variances may be requested during the site plan review process.
TABLE 4. VEHICLE STACKING AREA REQUIREMENTS
The design standard for the Stacking requirements will include:
1.
Required stacking spaces shall be a minimum of eight feet wide by twenty feet long with a vertical clearance of ten feet.
2.
All stacking space shall be located on private property, in as much as possible to the rear or side of the lot. In no case shall a stacking space be arranged or located in any way that impedes on of off site traffic movements into or out of off street parking spaces.
3.
Stacking spaces shall be separated from the internal driveway, by raised medians if deemed necessary for traffic movement and safety.