Sandpoint OKs changes to parking plan

SANDPOINT — Parking once again dominated at City Council on Wednesday, as council members adopted several changes to the city’s off-street parking ordinance.

“These changes were precipitated by a couple of things — some barriers to commercial development just outside of the current deregulation zone, and your strategic priorities around looking for obstacles around more affordable housing,” Aaron Qualls, city planning and economic development director, told council members.”

The proposed changes are the result of several workshops held by the commission over the past few months, resulting in a nearly complete overhaul of the City Code that addresses off-street parking requirements. The main topic of those meetings was expansion of the deregulation zone outside of the downtown core. Deregulation of the downtown core in 2009 allowed for projects such as the remodel and use change of the Kochava headquarters and the Hive, and building expansions at the winery and Joel’s Mexican Restaurant, Qualls said.

There were a few changes made to the draft ordinance following a public hearing held by the Planning and Zoning Commission on Nov. 6, Qualls said. He highlighted a few of those changes, including accessible parking spaces. Previously, he said, there was a provision in that section that repeated older code from the Americans with Disabilities Act.

“I took a real hard look at the accessible space requirements, and it has changed since we last updated the code,” he said. “Essentially I just, again, punted to the Americans with Disabilities Act.”

The provision now states that “All parking facilities must provide accessible parking spaces as required by the ADA standards for accessible design of the Americans with Disabilities Act.”

Another change was in the residential minimum and maximum parking space requirements. Previously, City Code required 1.4 parking spaces per unit, regardless of the type or size of the unit. In the initial draft of the ordinance, city staff broke that out into categories for single family, multi-family, cottages, etc. After the planning commission looked at it they realized an inconsistency in only requiring one space for a single-family home of three bedrooms or less, and one space for multi-family units of up to 800 square-feet, and anything over that would require two spaces, Qualls said.

“Why would an apartment much smaller require more than one?” Qualls said. “So we capped it at 1,200 square feet, which is a typical size in looking at permit data … I think that better meets your objective of reducing barriers for affordable housing options in town.”

Parking credits had a significant change as well, Qualls said, as there was a provision in the draft about proximity to bus stops. It was removed, however, after discussion by the planning commission. The provision essentially stated that if a business or multi-family residence is located within a quarter mile of a bus stop, they would get a 20 percent parking credit.

“That’s significant because you would be hard pressed to find anywhere in town that wasn’t a quarter mile from a bus stop,” Qualls said. “I gave (the planning commissioners) the option of reducing the credit or reducing the distance, they decided to take it out completely.”

Ultimately, council members passed the ordinance unanimously, after receiving two public comments, one in letter form and another in person at the meeting, both in support of the document.

Mary Malone can be reached by email at mmalone@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow her on Twitter @MaryDailyBee.