The City of Los Altos Building Square Footage Calculations Used for Determining Parking Requirements November 4, 2015 ATTACHMENT F
Background A number of city approved projects have used building square footages that are different than those filed with the city in determining the amount of parking required for a specific project. This has resulted in a number of recently approved projects being under parked. The city currently uses net building square footage to calculate parking requirements, building square footage, and traffic fees paid. Many times the parking requirements become a more significant factor in determining building size than zoning does. As a result, parking trumps zoning. Currently a net building square footage is used that includes some exempted building components, in determining the number of parking spaces required and traffic impact fees to be paid to the city. ~
Discussion Building floor areas have been an acceptable formula for determining maximum building square footage and other design components for many years. Building square footage is an accepted method used to determine community impact and parking requirements in addition to building height and mass. These current rules have not been applied evenly when it comes to calculating the required parking spaces for a building or use and traffic impact fees for the project. This results in the surrounding community paying the price for under parked projects. A standardized building square footage calculation should be used for both calculating the required parking spaces and traffic impact fees. By creating a better standardized net building square footage definition we believe we can apply these rules with better consistency when it comes to: Determining parking requirements Calculating traffic impact fees Encouraging beneficial architectural features Encouraging outdoor dining Other uses ~
Discussion Continued We recommend that the city modify what is counted in the net building square footage when determining parking requirements. We ve found in surrounding communities that the more exemptions there are in net building square footage calculations, there is a higher car count per thousand used in calculating the amount of parking required. A building whose net building square footage car count is lower, typically includes the square footage of: Stairwells Elevators Mechanical/Electrical Rooms Restrooms Etc. ~ However, if we were to remove all of these elements from the calculation it would result in a higher parking requirement.
Discussion Continued Could we use the parking square footage calculations as incentive for developers to, for example, create bigger lobbies or other architectural features to enhance the building without increasing the parking requirement? Additionally we could exempt architectural features and wall thickness greater than 10 from the net building square footage calculation. Further consideration is needed on how outside dining is included in the parking requirements for restaurants or outside sales. A simple approach may be to have building square footage calculations that city staff uses for net building square footage match the net building square footage used for parking requirements by providing a very clear list of building area types (stairs, lobbies, elevators, etc.) that are exempt for the calculation. ~ This approach would eliminate confusion for both planning staff, the general public, and developers.
Recommendation #1 Modify how net building square footage is counted for purposes of determining the amount of parking that is required and the traffic impact fees required for a specific use or project. ~
Recommendation #2 Start the process by using the gross building square footage calculations as the baseline. Do not include the following building elements in the net building square footage calculations for the purposes of determining the number of car spaces required or city fees paid: Stairwells Elevators Elevator fire rated lobbies Mechanical rooms Mechanical shaft enclosures Electrical rooms Trash enclosures Restrooms Ground floor entries/lobbies (up to 250 sq.ft. of the ground floor public lobby area) Architectural features Wall thickness in excess of 10 if the thickness is used for purposes of creating architectural features ~
Recommendation #3 Allow a review mechanism as an incentive for developers to create larger lobbies or other architectural features that enhance the building without increasing parking requirements. This incentive could be part of the design review application process. ~
Recommendation #4 Create an inspection process whereby planning staff inspects the building at completion of construction to ensure that architectural features that were considered exempt from the building square footage parking requirements are not then converted to useable office/retail space, etc. that constitutes a change in use. Any change in use would be subject to increased parking requirements and other applicable zoning requirements. ~
Recommendation #5 Allow a partial exemption (50% of the total seating provided on site) of outdoor dining square footage used for dining purposes in calculations of parking required through a use permit process for the outdoor dining square footage on private property. Allow a partial exemption (25% of the total seating provided in public right of way) of outdoor dining square footage, used for dining, within the public right of way. For example, a downtown restaurant has 2,000 sq.ft. of enclosed restaurant space, 1,000 sq.ft. of outside space on private property, and 500 sq.ft. of public right of way space for seating. The resulting parking requirements would be as follows: 2,000 sq.ft. enclosed - 7.2 cars (per thousand) x 2 = 14.4 cars 1,000 sq.ft. outside - 7.2 cars (per thousand) x 1 = 7.2 x 0.50 outside dining space = 3.6 cars 500 sq.ft. public right of way - 7.2 cars (per thousand) x 0.5 = 3.6 cars x 0.25 public right of way = 0.9 cars Total = 18.9 cars This approach would encourage restaurants to add outside dining to their project designs. The in-lieu fee program may be used for meeting outdoor seating parking requirements. ~