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Comparison of Church Parking and City Code Requirements <br />Parking/Seat Spaces -Main FI. Spaces - Balcony Total Spaces <br />R.t..ceurce 1 space/3.79 seats 276 spaces 27 spaces 303 spaces <br />25 space variance <br />City Code 1 space/3.5 seats 243 spaces 5 spaces 328 spaces <br />Note: The Church originally proposed constructing no additional parking spaces, but amended <br />its Proposal to include 27 new parking spaces near the south east comer of the building. <br />The Church notes that they now host 4 services; 1 on Saturday and 3 on Sunday morning. The <br />two later morning services are at 80% or more of capacity. Currently, when the church is at or <br />over 80% capacity, the parking lot is full and parking occurs on nearby streets. <br />3.0 Staff Comment And Findings <br />3.1. From a photographic and on-site review of the parking areas, it is clear that the Church already <br />has a large paved area within a residential neighborhood. In the past the Council has found that <br />such large pavement users can deteriorate neighborhood aesthetics, air quality, landscaping and <br />green space, and neighborhood sense of place. , The Council has asked the staff to work with <br />such large one-time "surge" parking needs to prepare "proof of parking" plans and find other <br />existing parking spaces to supplement their needs. The additional on-site parking could be a <br />community physical hardship since the hard surface would take away green space and increase <br />surface water management issues in the area. <br />3.2 As an alternative to the variance request, the Church could pave a portion of the green space in <br />the southeast comer of the parking lot adjacent to Bruce Russell Park or near the tennis court to <br />the north and east of the Church. This is the "pave paradise.. .put in a parking lot" solution. <br />3.3 Impervious Surfaces. Churches are known to be one of the most inefficient land uses in terms <br />of "at capacity" hours of use per week. The parking demand peaks for 4 to 5 hours on Sundays <br />only, less than 3% of the entire week, and less than 25% of the weekend daylight hours. In <br />addition, staff estimates that 25% of a typical residential neighborhood is now impervious <br />surfaces; 50% to 80% of commercial sites are impervious; and nearly 10% of all land within <br />the community is impervious road surfaces. Recently the City adopted Best Management <br />Practices for surface water quality and storage. One of the ways of improving water quality and <br />reducing man-made storage pond needs is to reduce the needs for minimally used impervious <br />surfaces. In urban areas, 55% of the precipitaticn leaves the site. Over 15 times the amount of <br />precipitation leaves a parking lot as a grassed landscape. (Rice Creek Watershed's motto is <br />to..." keep water as close to where it fa11s as possible" in order respect the environment and the <br />budget.) <br />PF32909- RCA (OS-22-00) - Page 2 of 3 <br />