City to consider amendment on parking in front-yard
FRONT-YARD PARKING ON THE FRONT BURNER: Roland Soto emails, “I read your article that the Planning Department will be seeking clarification from City Council in March to see if their intent is to have the front-yard parking standards in the IDO be retroactive . ... Do you know if the council addressed this issue and if they did what was the result?” It is coming up this week. At 5 p.m. Wednesday, at the LUPZ (Land Use, Planning, and Zoning) Committee meeting in City Council Chambers, Exhibit 5 of the amendment packet to the Integrated Development Ordinance will tackle front-yard parking. You can check it out at abczone.com.
Brennon Williams, deputy director of the Planning Department, says Planning and Council staff have proposed the amendment “to clarify limitations and requirements on frontyard parking in most all residential zones, to explain the enforcement approach to the variety of front-yard parking issues and standards (pre-2007 vs. those established after 2007 and the effective date of the IDO), and to provide a specific option for a variance to the proposed standards.”
In brief, the amendment clarifies that if a property owner of an older home did not have a driveway, or poured concrete over the front yard before 2007, they cannot be forced to either install a driveway or rip up that concrete. But. Everyone has to park either on an improved surface — as in concrete or asphalt or crusher fine gravel, not landscaping gravel — or in the same size of area as a standard driveway for their lot size. That means only a specified amount of a front yard can be used for parking. Say if it’s an older home from the 1920s that doesn’t have a driveway, residents can only park in an area similar to a driveway.
In other words, no parking all over the front yard, not on grass, or gravel, or dirt. Part of the amendment reads: “a. i. Where a residential unit has an existing, improved front-yard parking area, parking on unimproved surfaces such as dirt, grass or landscape areas, or upon surfaces that were improved for any purpose other than front-yard parking such as decorative gravel areas, patios or pedestrian walkways, must be discontinued regardless of the year of development of the property or improvement.
“b. Where an existing residential unit lacks an improved front-yard parking area, and improved front-yard parking areas were not required at the time of the unit’s initial development, such residential unit may continue to utilize a portion of the front yard for parking subject to the size and area limitations prescribed.”
Williams says, “All amendments will ultimately go to the full Council for action prior to the May 17 effective date.”