Moving away from ‘parking lot seas’

Changes in shopping, work trends prompt code update

The way people shop has changed, especially since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. People shop online more often, and if they shop locally, they might want to pick up their purchases curbside.

Noting that shopping trends have reduced the need for large parking lots, Yuma staff has proposed changes to the city’s parking regulations.

“It’s time to look at the parking code and update it with some positive improvements,” said Randy Crist, interim director of community development.

Currently, the code requires a minimum number of parking spaces based on the business type. For example, an office is required to have one space for every 300 square feet of floor area in the building. There are no parking maximums.

“So if an office was required 50 and they wanted to provide 75, there’s nothing in the code to prevent that from happening,” explained Alyssa Linville, assistant director of community development.

The most recent update occurred in 2017, when staff reduced parking requirements to meet industry standards, in particular for retail, restaurants and hotels; identified parking reductions for certain uses in the Infill Overlay District; and to allow parking reductions when bicycle parking, charging stations and/or increased landscaping is provided.

Crist explained the need to further update the parking regulations. “We have overpark and underused commercial developments currently. By that I mean, historically a lot of large retailers will overpark for a one-time event like Black Friday. Those parking lots may be full at that time, but the other part of the year, you’ll see a lot of vacant parking spots.”

Vacant oversized parking lots contribute to the urban heat island effect and increase stormwater runoff. “We know how it is here in Yuma and we know that asphalt can increase that heat,” he said. “Stormwater runoff is also a big concern. It has

contaminates in the water, with the oil leaking and so forth. Especially with the river, we have to be very concerned with that.”

He added: “Unused parking lots, quite frankly, it just increases the retention requirements. I’ve actually seen where they struggled to get the retention because of the large parking lots, and they had to do vertical retention basins with fenced areas, and those add expense and aren’t attractive to look at.”

Overpark contributes also to urban sprawl. “They need larger pieces of land to get those larger parking lots, so they’re going out to look for pieces of ground, not outside of the city limits, but outside of the heart of the city, and that’s concerning to us,” Crist said.

In addition, he noted, large parking lots decrease availability of land for development. “If you have a giant parking lot, you can’t build as many buildings or not any out buildings.”

CHANGES IN INDUSTRY STANDARDS

In recent years, market trends have changed the way retailers do business and how consumers obtain goods. It’s not just online retail giants Wayfair and Amazon, but the local Walmarts, Lowes and

Home Depots.

“Pretty much everyone out there. That’s reduced the number of parking spaces that are required,” Crist said.

COVID-19 further changed these trends. More employees work from home, so the parking needs for some office buildings have gone down. More shoppers are buying online and/or choosing curbside pickup or home delivery.

In addition, due to the pandemic, the city, and later the state, allowed the temporary extension of premises onto sidewalks and parking lots. “It was a learning experience for us because we saw that some of the parking spaces that were utilized for the extensions didn’t really hurt the parking situation of the business,” Crist said.

“Some of these businesses may want to go with a permanent premise extension, and we’re thinking that our parking improvements maybe can help with some of those hurdles for that kind of activity,” he added. “With all this put together, this has created a new normal right now for parking, and we want to address that.”

PROPOSED UPDATES

After reviewing these market trends and the needs of the community, city staff formulated a plan for updating parking regulations. First, the city wants to get away from parking minimums and establish a required parking standard, sometimes referred to as a parking maximum.

“So we would no longer want to encourage these large vast, empty parking lots that are only being used for one event out of the year,” Linville said.

For example, if an office needs 10 spaces, they would provide 10 spaces, “no more or no less,” she noted.

Acknowledging that sometimes a business needs flexibility, the city would allow 10% reductions and increases from the parking standard through a variance reviewed and approved by the zoning administrator.

The proposed update would formallize provisions for compact parking. The city currently allows compact parking, but it’s in excess of the minimum parking requirement. “So again, we were encouraging people to provide more parking than they actually needed,” Linville noted.

The proposal also outlines provisions to allow “Yuma” compact parking, but these smaller spots would be capped at 20% of the parking .

Linville noted that most of the community drives larger vehicles and are used to spacious parking spots. “We would like to keep that,” she said.

A typical Yuma parking space is 10 wide and 19 feet deep. Compact parking spaces in most cities are 8 feet wide by 16 feet depth. The “Yuma” compact space would be 9 feet wide by 18 feet deep. “So that is much larger than a typically compact spot,” Linville said.

The proposal would further expand parking reductions in the Infill Overlay District and allow shared parking between several users. Some buildings have multiple tenants that use the building at different hours. Currently, the city requires parking for each use.

For example, an office that operates during the day and a church that operates in the evenings and weekends in the same building are each required to provide parking space. But with the shared concept, the office and the church can share the parking space.

COUNCIL DISCUSSION

Mayor Doug Nicholls said they were headed in the right direction and loved the shared-use concept. “We’ve had that discussion for decades,” he noted.

But he felt that some parts might be too “ambiguous” for property owners. City Administrator Phil Rodriguez explained that staff is targeting big box retailers, who want large parking spaces for use once or twice a year.

“That standard is fading, but there are still some of the retailers that exist. That’s a lot of what we’re trying to catch with that, so we don’t have these seas of parking lots,” Rodriguez said.

The mayor suggested being more specific to that type of retail use, “as opposed to putting that standard carte blanche … So if we have a problem we’re trying to solve, solve that problem without implementing restrictions on the other parts that aren’t the problem.”

Shoop asked if proposed updates would address unused planters and trees in some of the existing parking lots that reduce traffic flow. “Those are the two focuses I have a problem with from observing drivers,” she said.

Linville noted that the code already has landscaping requirements for parking lots and staff doesn’t want to change that. “We want to encourage canopy coverage over the asphalt. We don’t want to contribute to the urban heat effect. We do want to continue to see those islands utilized within parking lots,” she said.

Deputy Mayor Leslie McClendon called the proposal a “great plan” and noted that property owners might take the opportunity to move into a new direction when repaving their parking lots. The added space might also allow developers to sell more pads on a property.

McClendon asked whether existing parking lots would be grandfathered in. Linville explained that they wouldn’t be required to change their parking, but if someone wants to restripe or resurface their property, they will let them know of the new standards and encourage them to take advantage.

“That might open them up for new opportunities,” Linville said.

McClendon also addressed extended premises, noting that she loves them, especially downtown, but that mixing cars and pedestrians is “a little bit chaotic” and dangerous, especially at night. She would also like to see companies move away from permanent parking to more drivethrus and curbside lanes or parking areas.

Councilman Mike Shelton also praised the effort, noting that he likes that vacant parking areas at the Yuma Palms Regional Shopping Center are being used as farmers markets. “The more voluntary opportunities there are for such vendors, the better,” he said.

Staff will bring an amendment with the updates to the parking regulations within the next few months for review and approval by the council.