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THE ZONING REPORT For Planning and Zoning Pro~essionals ISSN 0748-0083 VOL 12, NO 10 -- AUG 19, 1994 -- Charles Reed, AICP, Editor/Publisher -- $58/year/subscription PARKING RATIOS FOR INDOSTRIAL/~MPIZ)YMENT USES Determining the proper amount of industrial parking can be a headache. Try this case: Two companies each want to build a large industrial plant in your locality. Each plant will be the same size, 200,000 sq ft. One plant, a factory, will employ 2000, the other, a regional distribution warehouse, will employ only 200. Your zoning code requires one parking space for each employee for all industrial uses. Thereby one plant requires ten times the number of spaces than the other. If the warehouse is later replaced by a fac- tory employing more workers, more parking spaces will be needed. But a company might balk at providing them. Moreover, a locality's political leaders want jobs and will offer indus- trial firms inducements to locate there. Do Formulas for deriving required industrial/employment parking Off-street parkin~ imposed by the parking chapter of the zoning code for industrial/ employment uses can consist of five ratios or elements: --- a ratio for the amount of required em- pl o,ve e parking; --- ratio for the amount of required custo- mer-user-visitor parking; --- one space required for each commercial vehicle used in the business~ where such spaces do not count as required parking spaces; --- a space for each vehicle stored outside as factory production inventory or as custo- mers' vehi. cles being serviced, which spaces these inducements extend to relaxing your z~n'- ..... 'd~,r~{'~t b& counted as parking area; and i_ng code. to obtain more jobs? --- .adequate space for parking, storing and Seven past issues of The Zoning Report th~f. tT~r "10adi~{~ trucks, trailers and tractor-trailers for discuss aspects of thi~ topic are--Oct 29, 1984'i incoming-outgoing freight and goods. What you need to know about retail parkland, f.~_~CDG zoning requirements; Sept 26, 1986: A complete outline for an off-street parking chapter in your zoning ordinance; Nov 21, 1986: Your off- street loading regulations may be seriously out of date; Dec 16, 1988: New solutions for a con- troversial problem: Reducing the number of required parking spaces; July 20, 1990: How to improve buildability on lots and tracts; Oct 23, 1992: Accessory off-street business parking al- lowed in residential zones; and May 21, 1993: Recent trends in zoning landscape standards for parking lots. Each of these reports are available from us for $3 each. Most zoning codes impose only a single ratio for ail parking required for industrial uses. There are three ways this ratio can be imposed per space: on the number of emp]oyees; on the floor area in buildings on the site or site area devoted to outdoor storage and industrial ac- tivities; or preferably, in our view, on both the number of employees or floor area, whichever provides more parking spaces. Although not imposed for industrial uses, many codes also impose a parking ratio for user-visitor-customer parking. It is imposed for retail and service uses, for office uses and for residential uses per dwelling unit. 1994 by Charles Reed ........ 1404 N. State Road 7, Suite 269; Margate, Florida 33063 -- Mailing address: PO.Box 6529; Margate, Florida 33063 --