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Comparison of Church Parking and City Code Requirements Parking/Seat Spaces -Main FI. Spaces - Balcony Total Spaces R.L.Church I space!3. 79 seats 276 spaces 27 spaces 303 spaces 25 space variance City Code 1 space/3 .5 seats 243 spaces 85 spaces 328 spaces Note: The Church originally proposed constructing no additional parking spaces, but amended its Proposal to include 27 new parking spaces near the south east corner of the building. The Church notes that they now host 4 services; I on Saturday and 3 on Sunday morning. The two later morning services are at 80% or more of capacity. Currently, when the church is at or over 80% capacity, the parking lot is full and parking occurs on nearby streets. 3.0 Staff Comment And Findings 3.1. From a photographic and on-site review of the parking areas, it is clear that the Church already has a large paved area within a residential neighborhood. In the past the Council has found that such large pavement users can deteriorate neighborhood aesthetics, air quality, landscaping and green space, and neighborhood sense of place. . The Council has asked the staff to work with such large one-time "surge" parking needs to prepare "proof of parking" plans and find other existing parking spaces to supplement their needs. The additional on-site parking could be a community physical hardship since the hard surface would take away green space and increase surface water management issues in the area. 3.2 As an alternative to the variance request, the Church could pave a portion of the green space in the southeast corner of the parking lot adjacent to Bruce Russell Park or near the tennis court to the north and east of the Church. This is the "pave paradise.. .put in a parking lot" solution. 3.3 Impervious Surfaces. Churches are known to be one ofthe most inefficient land uses in terms of "at capacity" hours of use per week. The parking demand peaks for 4 to 5 hours on Sundays only, less than 3% of the entire week, and less than 25% of the weekend daylight hours. In addition, staff estimates that 25% of a typical residential neighborhood is now impervious surfaces; 50% to 80% of commercial sites are impervious; and nearly I 0% of all land within the community is impervious road surfaces. Recently the City adopted Best Management Practices for surface water quality and storage. One of the ways of improving water quality and reducing man-made storage pond needs is to reduce the needs for minimally used impervious surfaces. In urban areas, 55% of the precipitation leaves the site. Over 15 times the amount of precipitation leaves a parking lot as a grassed landscape. (Rice Creek Watershed's motto is to..." keep water as close to where it falls as possible" in order respect the environment and the budget.) PF32909- RCA (05-22-00) - Page 2 of 3