REPORT TO PLANNING COMMISSION
SUBJECT
Title
Action on an Amendment of Zoning Code Chapter 18.74 - Parking Regulations
Report
BACKGROUND
The City allows for privately initiated and funded Zoning Code Amendment requests. The applicant, Extra Space Storage, submitted a request to amend the City's Zoning Code to create a new codified parking ratio for self-storage facilities based on a recognition that such facilities may generate parking demand levels different from other uses. Separately, City staff identified the need to study the parking ratio for data centers. Neither land use currently has a parking ratio specifically identified in the parking standards chapter of the Zoning Code (Chapter 18.74) (see Attachment 1). Because the Code does not identify specific parking standards for these uses, the City's practice has been to apply the parking standard for general warehousing use for both. Therefore, the applicant and the City contracted with HMH, a consulting firm, to study the parking ratios for self-storage facilities and data centers.
DISCUSSION
In September 2017 the project applicant, a private party, submitted a technical report by the consultant (Attachment 2) that analyzed parking usage rates at three self-storage facilities and five data centers in the City of Santa Clara. Actual parking demand data was collected for the peak usage times at each site. The conclusions of the technical report were reviewed and confirmed by the City's traffic consultant.
Data was collected for each of the three self-storage sites on four weekend days in July 2017 because the manager of each facility indicated that the peak use demand is on weekends. The parking demand for self-storage facilities, expressed as a weighted average, was determined to be 0.088 parking spaces per 1,000 gross square feet of floor area (or 0.88 spaces per 10,000 gross square feet). The proposed ordinance change would establish a slightly higher ratio of 1 parking space per 10,000 gross sq...
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