THE PARKING TOOL: HOW TO DEAL WITH PARKING IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD PLAN

I. INTRODUCTION...............................................................................................2
A. Things to consider (big picture/local picture)..................................................2 B. How parking works ............................................................................................4

II. PLANNING FOR PARKING.............................................................................5

A. Vision ..................................................................................................................5 B. Inventory and Assessment ................................................................................5 C. Developing recommendations ..........................................................................6 D. Getting your recommendations implemented ...............................................10

III. SOME COMMON ISSUES AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT THEM ..................12

A. We cant find a place to park: high on-street parking demand...................12 B. Our neighborhood is a sea of parking lots: create a pedestrian-friendly environment ..........................................................................13

APPENDIX A: COMPARISON OF ON-STREET PARKING OPTIONS ............................................................................................................15 APPENDIX B: CITYWIDE DESIGN GUIDELINES ABOUT PARKING............................................................................................................17

Prepared by the Office of Management and Planning, the Seattle Engineering Department and the Department of Construction and Land Use, August, 1996

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I. INTRODUCTION
This tool is designed to help neighborhood planners sort through the complicated choices associated with parking and understand the options for addressing parking problems. Neighborhood planning represents an opportunity to investigate the underlying causes of local parking issues and apply the most appropriate solutions. Section I of this tool gives you some ways to think about how parking works. Section II steps you through a planning process to put parking in the context of your neighborhood vision, assess parking issues in your neighborhood, develop recommendations and get them implemented. Section III takes a closer look at two very common issueswhat to do when theres not enough parking, and what to do when theres too much. Throughout, City programs and regulations are described from which your neighborhood plan can draw to deal with parking issues. More information on these City programs and regulations can be found in the appendices. Throughout this tool other useful references are listed in this kind of type.

A. Things to consider (big picture/local picture)

The availability and cost of parking are factors in peoples choices about where to live, work, shop and conduct personal business. Long- or short-term parking is part of every car trip. The challenge is to provide enough parking to meet mobility and economic needs, without providing too much, so as to encourage people to use other modes of travel and to minimize the impacts of parking on neighborhood character. This section describes several factors to consider in planning for parking: amount, location, neighborhood character and the environment.

Amount
The goal for any neighborhood is to have the right amount of parking. This can be very difficult for a community to define, because different people have different needs. Residents need a place to park their vehicles near their homes. Businesses need parking places for their employees and customers. Businesses are also competing regionally, and dont want expensive or inaccessible parking to deter otherwise willing customers. Employees and customers both want to park as close as possible to their destinations. Residents dont want strangers parking on their streets, especially when their own parking options are limited. Everybody wants free, convenient, safe parking.

Location
Location and amount are linked; having enough parking in the wrong place, is the same as not having enough parking. All parking spaces are either on-street or off-street.

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On-street parking spaces must be accommodated in the same limited street space as sidewalks, driveways (curb cuts), transit, bike lanes, regular vehicle lanes, and loading and unloading of commercial and other vehicles. At the same time, emergency vehicles need to be able to negotiate all Seattle streets safely. Off street spaces: Until 1967 off-street (accessory) parking wasnt required for new buildings in Seattle. Consequently, many older buildings do not have on-site parking; residents, employees and customers must rely on nearby parking lots, garages in other buildings, or on-street parking. Competition for on-street parking in older, busier neighborhoods can be fierce.

Neighborhood Character
The location and amount of parking need to be tailored to the activities in the neighborhood, without detracting from neighborhood character. Parking can be distributed in an area to encourage people to walk, use transit, and increase their interactions. Where off-street parking is provided in a developmentin front of or behind a building or in a garagehas a profound effect on the functioning and character of the street and the neighborhood. Today, the character of many neighborhoods is defined by the automobile, for example, when a high percentage of land is devoted to surface parking lots, streets and driveways. Expanses of parking are difficult and unpleasant to walk through. They can also be unsafe to walk through due to the turns and back-up movements of parking. Off-street parking can also affect neighborhood character on a smaller scale, for example, when too many buildings in the commercial heart of the neighborhood are set back from the sidewalk to allow parking in front. Yet, with careful design, the dominance of off-street parking areas as visual, physical and perceptual barrier for pedestrians can be reduced.

Environmental Issues
To preserve air and water quality, Seattles long-term goal is to increase the attractiveness of travel choices other than the car, thereby reducing auto use or at least slowing its increase. Parking can be both a carrot and a stick in this effort. An example carrot might be centralized parking in a neighborhood to encourage walking to several destinations nearby. An example stick might be to charge people for parking, making other travel options more attractive. This is another place where striking the right balance can be difficult. Meeting near-term needs with lots of parking may make it harder to meet goals for reducing reliance on the car, as well as leading to irrevocable changes in neighborhood character. However, focusing too much on long-term goals may inconvenience drivers and cause hardships for businesses in the near-term.

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B. How parking works Private market role

Generally, the private market has three roles in providing parking:
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The amount of parking will almost always be one of the main considerations in a developers decision to construct a new building. At a minimum, a developer must follow Land Use Code requirements for the activity or use of the building. Beyond that, the developer considers how much additional parking tenants or buyers will need. The developer also designs the way parking fits into the development within Land Use Code requirements. Businesses in an area can join together to address parking issues (see Community-based strategies, below). Private businesses develop and manage pay parking lots and garages.

City role
The City does not define who has the right to park on a street. The City is responsible for how the space next to the curb is used for on-street parking, bus stops, travel lanes, emergency vehicle access, curb bulbs, etc. If on-street parking is provided, the City decides whether that parking should be metered or time-restricted with signs, the cost to use the meters, and short-term parking versus loading/unloading. The only citywide parking restriction is the prohibition of parking a vehicle on-street (in one place) for more than 24 hours. The City also influences how much off-street parking new developments provide. Requirements are spelled out in the Land Use Code, and they are fairly complex. Requirements for the amount of off-street parking in a development are determined by usee.g., an apartment building has different requirements than a fast food restaurant or an industrial warehouse. There are also requirements for the design and location of off-street parking by zonee.g., where parking can be located on a development site in a multifamily zone may differ from parking locations in a neighborhood commercial zone. Parking location and access requirements may be altered for a particular project due to site specific characteristics. These decisions are made at the time of a permit application through environmental review (SEPA) or design review. In some circumstances additional parking may be required due to possible environmental impacts. See NPOs Users Guide to SEPA and Design Review: Guidelines for Multifamily & Commercial Buildings.

Neighborhood plan role

Neighborhood plans that take up parking as an issue will ultimately be making recommendations to the City of Seattle. Neighborhood plans can also provide the impetus for businesses and residents to work together to improve parking without the participation of City government (more below). The planning process is a good chance for people with different parking needs to work together to understand local parking problems and find solutions that everyone can live with.

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II. PLANNING FOR PARKING

Planning is systematic decision-making. It removes guesswork, provides a means for balancing divergent opinions, and offers a way of measuring progress toward a goal. Listed below are several basic steps in planning for any issue. Your first step, as a neighborhood, is to get together and work through these steps collectively.

A. Vision
In any neighborhood that has residences, businesses with customers and/or employees and other activities to which people drive, its important for the neighborhood as a whole to agree on its vision for the future. This includes finding the role that parking can play in helping achieve that vision. Consider, for example:
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Where will the neighborhoods activity centers be? One can reasonably anticipate that parking will be needed in or near activity centers. Where are the neighborhoods quiet spots, where lots of visitor parking would be intrusive? What kinds of changes in development and character is your neighborhood expecting or aiming for in the long-run? How should parking fit in? What kinds of households live in the area now and are expected in the future? Will there be many households with several adults who may have several cars? or small households or households who own relatively fewer cars?

The general approach to parking should follow from the neighborhoods agreed upon vision. The details of how much of what sort of parking the area should have in which locations will then need to be determined. The next step is to examine existing conditions and needs.

B. Inventory and Assessment

By answering these or similar questions, your neighborhood can describe parking conditions today.
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Where do people park today? for what reasons (shopping, parking vehicles overnight, etc.)? What parking needs and problems do residents, business people, employees and their customers tell you that they have? Where do different parking needs compete for space? How does demand for parking vary by time of day, day of the week, time of the year? How do parking patterns vary by location and time? How long do vehicles need to park in various locations and times of day?

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Where and when do businesses need loading and unloading areas? Are there large facilities (e.g., a hospital, school, community center, movie theater, or park) that attract many visitors by car? How do they manage parking demand?

Because parking needs vary, even in a single day, studies to determine how an areas parking resources are used must be designed very carefully. Such studies, though sometimes expensive, can be useful in helping people understand how parking resources are really useddispelling misconceptions, and helping everyone find a common understanding. People can participate in parking studies, for example, by helping with parking counts or keeping a record of how they and their visitors or customers use the neighborhoods parking resources.

C. Developing recommendations
There are a variety of tools and techniques neighborhoods can use to address their parking problems, once parking issues have been adequately studied. These tools and techniques are described briefly below. Here are some rules of thumb for putting together parking recommendations:
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Make sure that the tool fits the problem. For example, recommending changes to parking standards for new development will not have much, if any, effect on existing parking conditions. Consider the area as a whole and the tools as a package. Identify and try to minimize undesirable spillover effects. Consider parking together with other street design or development design issues (see Making Streets That Work, the Zoning Tool and Preparing Your Own Design Guidelines tools). Consider cost of implementing new parking, and who pays. Is one group being unfairly burdened? Consider long-term and near-term goals and effects of your recommendations. For recommendations that will be implemented by the City of Seattle, involve staff from the relevant departments early on (Engineering Department for on-street parking; Office of Management and Planning for help with choosing strategies appropriate to the issues you face, Department of Construction and Land Use for interpretation of existing Land Use Code requirements or proposing changes). Make sure that recommendations to reduce parking supply correlate with realistic transit service assumptions (hours, routes, and frequency) if the goal is to shift people out of their vehicles.

Described below are general parking management strategies and specific tools that neighborhoods can use in their plans for both on- and off-street parking.

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On-street parking:
These tools offer a variety of ways for neighborhoods to address their on-street parking problems. They are most often useful in business districts or on adjacent streets in residential areas. More detailed information on each tool can be found in Appendix A.
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Signed parking restrictions of various sorts: encourages short-term parking and turnover, and loading/unloading. Changes are generally at the request of adjacent business and property owners. Metered parking: Mainly used in commercial areas with the support of business and property owners. Meters encourage short-term parking access and availability, and turnover that businesses value. Angled parking: Can increase overall supply of on-street parking, if the street is wide enough. Residential parking zones: Discourages excessive non-residential, allday, on-street parking that results from close proximity to a business district or a major institution, park, ferry dock, or express bus route, and the like, that generates demand for parking.

Off-street parking in new development

The Citys Land Use Code describes the amount of parking required for any new development. The amount of parking required for residential development is based on the number and average size of the units. The amount of parking for commercial uses is based on the type of use and assumptions about the parking demand it generates (short-term, long-term, handicapped, carpool/vanpool spaces). Impacts identified by State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) review may result in the need for additional spaces beyond what is required in the Land Use Code. The Land Use Code also details requirements for parking location and design on a development site, access to parking, and width and number of curb cuts permitted. The first thing to do is to learn about existing parking requirements for the zoning in your neighborhood and the types of development expected. They may already provide the kind of direction you would like to see. There are a variety of things to keep in mind:
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Your neighborhoods overall goals for maintaining economic vitality and achieving a certain neighborhood character. These kinds of changes affect future development only and may not help with a current problem. Parking requirements may affect a developers decisions about where and what to build. Providing parking is expensive and is a significant factor in the cost of new housing; keep this in mind if your neighborhood is also concerned about housing affordability. Parking requirements influence the decisions of new business about where to locate. Check with developers in your area to see if any new or different parking

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requirements you intend to propose would actually get you the kind and quality of development youd like to see.
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The real factors leading to high on-street parking demand may be the cost, convenience, perception of safety or visibility of existing off-street parking, or the distance between a destination and off-street parking, rather than the off-street parking requirements for new development. Off-street parking requirements may be set to balance the off-street parking supply with other goals, e.g., keeping development costs low, dealing with small or irregular lot sizes, or discouraging car use. Consider what other transportation options people have, such as transit. Is transit provided at the appropriate times and places, with enough frequency to enable people to reduce their parking needs?

If your neighborhood considers that current requirements do not adequately address neighborhood conditions, your plan may propose changes. Keep in mind, however, that current requirements are based on studies, industry standards and /or City policy decisions about the way in which parking provision is balanced with other needs and goals. Your reasons for proposed changes to these regulations will need to be well-documented. Some examples of when modifying development requirements might be appropriate include:
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when off-street parking requirements would lead to disruption of the proposed pedestrian character of a commercial street; existing, severe, spillover problems. When all of the parking demand generated by a certain use (or group of uses) is not being accommodated on the site of those uses or within the adjacent on-street spaces. Examples include: Oaktree Village, the zoo, some low income housing, many major institutions, Wallingford commercial area, Seattle Center, movie theaters.

Several avenues are available to you. Design guidelines, zoning, and SEPA conditioning are all described below.

Design guidelines (see Preparing Your Own Design Guidelines)

Seattle has a design review process for new multifamily, mixed use or commercial development in L3, L4, Midrise, Highrise and Neighborhood Commercial zones. Design review is a forum for a neighborhood and a developer to work together toward improving the community by paying attention to simple design principles. Design guidelines have been prepared to support the design review process. Several design guidelines address parking and vehicle access (see Appendix B). Review these design guidelines for applicability in your neighborhood. Neighborhood design guidelines, augmenting citywide guidelines, may be developed that state a preferred location or way of providing access to parking.

Land Use Code (see Zoning tool):

Through zoning you can encourage new development to be more pedestrian friendly . Neighborhood commercial (NC) zones define pedestrian-oriented shopping or mixed use areas, and discourage the placement of parking between

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the building and the street. A pedestrian overlay (indicated by a P-1 or P-2 as part of the zoning) further influences the location and amount of a new developments required parking. These pedestrian designations require new development to place parking behind, in or under a building. This helps create or maintain a continuous commercial street front that has minimal parking between the buildings and the sidewalk, and limited driveway curb cuts to reduce conflicts between pedestrians and vehicles. Neighborhoods may propose changes to the amount of parking required if, after a statistically valid survey of car ownership and parking behavior in the neighborhood, it is determined that parking requirements are insufficient or too high. Specific Land Use Code requirements that you may want to consider applying to help achieve a balance between providing adequate parking to meet a neighborhoods needs and creating a more pedestrian-friendly character include:
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limiting the area of any given parcel that may be used for surface parking; limit the percent of lot frontage that may be used for parking; do not allow parking between a building and the sidewalk; require parking to be located behind or above ground floor retail/services on street sides of garages or lots; limit the amount of required parking that commercial uses may locate onsite, while allowing some parking to be located in central garages.

Check to see whether some or all of these may already apply in your neighborhood. Several principles about zoning to keep in mind include:
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its easier to change the zoning of an area to another zone or requirement that already exists in the Land Use Code, rather than to create a new zone or requirement; zoning changes should be proposed for more than one piece of property.

SEPA conditioning or SEPA Substantive Authority

In some neighborhoods, an appropriate strategy may be to describe what would be considered a parking impact of new development. A neighborhood plan could recommend the types of SEPA conditions or mitigation that could be required of a new development that creates a parking impact. These conditions might address such things as the amount of parking required, its location on the development site, whether it is in surface lots, garages or part of the building, landscaping and how entries and exits to the street are configured. The Northgate Area Comprehensive Plan contains examples of this strategy.

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Community-based strategies
Parking Management Associations
A Parking Management Association, such as the University District Parking Association, is a business group within a commercial district organized to provide: management of the off-street parking supply, validation programs, security, consistent pricing, marketing, sharing of the parking supply, maintenance, staffing of lots/garages, or cost sharing.

Marketing strategies: Parking validation programs

Often customers will choose not to patronize a business or business district because they either dont want to pay for parking or are unaware that off-street parking exists. Parking validation programs can reduce these concerns. Participating businesses and parking management companies (garages and lot operators) agree that through validation, people generally receive either a reduced rate for parking or free parking for a specified time. The businesses reimburse the parking management companies at an agreed upon rate. When customers ask for parking validation, the businesses give them a sticker or token that can be used at the parking facilities that are a part of the program. Individual or groups of businesses that do not provide their own off-street parking sometimes defray all or a portion of their customers off-street parking costs. Such programs can also equalize the parking costs among commercial areas. An example of a parking validation program is the Downtown Association Easy Streets program.

Other marketing strategies

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Signs directing visitors to off-street parking; Pricing strategies to discourage long-term use of off-street parking to make sure spaces are available for customers of a business district.

D. Getting your recommendations implemented

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Describe your long- and near-term parking goals in your neighborhood plan. Then spell out the specific strategies you propose to help you achieve your goals. Include, as appropriate, specific locations for changes to the on- or future off-street parking supply. Drawings and maps are helpful. Prioritize recommendations, both in terms of importance and ease of implementation. Indicate any recommendations that function as a package and should be implemented together.

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Document any technical studies, as well as community support and disagreement.

For more information, see Guide to City Approval and Adoption of Neighborhood Plans, from NPO. Below are listed the considerations the City will use to evaluate the proposals that it is responsible for implementing. Consider and respond to these concerns in your recommendations.

On-street parking:
The City will evaluate parking recommendations to ensure:
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Streets continue to function well and safely; Documentation indicating strong support among those most closely affected (adjacent property owners, businesses and residents). In general, the parking restrictions currently in place on Seattle streets are a result of requests from adjacent businesses and property owners. Consistency with the Comprehensive Plan. Recommendations are appropriate to address the neighborhoods needs. Impacts of the action are understood and significant adverse impacts will not be created.

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Off-street parking in new development

The City will consider some of the same things for off-street parking as for onstreet:
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Consistency with the Comprehensive Plan; Recommendations are an appropriate remedy to address neighborhood needs; Support of adjacent property owners, businesses and residents; Action will not create significant adverse impacts or unduly restrict businesses, and those affected understand the possible impacts.

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When a neighborhood plan proposes a new way of regulating off-street parking supply, the City will also evaluate whether the proposed regulations:
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are applied fairly and do not single out certain property owners; do not make development regulations unduly complex or substantially raise the cost of development or housing; are clear and easy to understand.

The procedure for proposing a change to the Land Use Code is described in the Zoning Tool. Please read the zoning tool as you develop recommendations some kinds of recommendations are inherently easier to implement than others.

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III. SOME COMMON ISSUES AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT THEM A. We cant find a place to park: high on-street parking demand
When parking utilization approaches capacity people generally begin perceiving a problem. Technically, if the supply of on-street parking is 85% occupied (on average), it is considered to be used to capacity, since the remaining available spaces are difficult to find. Symptoms of high on-street parking demand include:
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A low parking turnover rate. This is when cars are parked in the same space for at least 4 hours (on average). Parking within a reasonable walking distance (3 blocks) is hard to find during specific times of the day. The majority of vehicles parked in a residential area are from outside the neighborhood. There isnt enough parking for commercial vehicles to load or unload without blocking a travel lane.

To determine if any of these conditions are actually occurring, the following studies can be performed:
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Parking turnover study: determines the average length of time that cars are parking on the street. Parking utilization study: determines the number and percent of on-street and/or off-street parking spaces occupied at different time periods. License plate survey: determines where parked vehicles are registered. Origin-destination survey: determines where people parking in a specific lot, garage or on the street are going to and coming from. changing the way on-street parking is used, for example, by increasing turnover through time limit signs or meters; encouraging businesses to share parking, for example, businesses with no night-time hours can make their parking available for those that have night-time hours; increasing the area in your neighborhood where on-street parking spaces are restricted (1- or 2-hr limits, residential parking zones, etc.); advocating for increased transit service; improving the pedestrian or bicycling environment, so more people will have other options.

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Approaches to solving this problem include:

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When employees and customers of local businesses are both using the same limited on-street parking resources, local employers may consider transportation demand management tools such as:
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employee flex-time

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staggered shifts telecommuting contributing to employee transit passes

Well-used on-street parking, especially in commercial areas, may be an indication of a successful neighborhood business district or the presence of particularly successful businesses. Well-used on-street parking also helps buffer pedestrians from traffic, encouraging people to walk. Remember to consider these aspects of high on-street parking demand in developing your parking management recommendations.

B.

Our neighborhood is a sea of parking lots: create a pedestrian-friendly environment

Some of Seattles urban villages and centers currently contain large supplies of off-street, surface parking in commercial areas (for example, Aurora Avenue and th N. 130 St., Northgate). Changing this character will take a long time as new buildings are developed on these vast parking lots. As the density of these areas increases, the value of land will also increase. When land prices get high enough, the cost of parking garages becomes comparable to or cheaper than surface lots; new developments will then include parking structures within buildings instead of large parking lots. In addition, the higher development densities will make it more efficient to provide transit, and improve the walk between transit and office/retail uses. The City can help smooth the transition between high parking demand today and lower demand in the future. Developers can be encouraged to provide the relatively low amount of on-site parking expected to be needed in the future, rather than the relatively high amount needed today. Some methods to achieve these results include:
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Reduce on-site parking requirements for commercial uses, while allowing parking in centrally-located garages. Keep total parking supply as low as possible by encouraging shared or joint use parking between different kinds of businesses or uses occurring at different times (e.g., a store open during the day and a restaurant whose business is mostly at night could use the same parking).

There are several approaches to address this problem that benefit both the community and developer, including:

Using on-street parking to insulate pedestrians from traffic.

On-street parking buffers the sidewalk from moving traffic, as well as providing some parking close to businesses. However, on-street parking requires street right-of-way that could otherwise be used for wider sidewalks, bicycle lanes, or a travel lane.

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Guide the design of parking provided in new development

The Land Use Code describes:
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How much of the development site may be devoted to parking; Whether that parking can be on the surface, or whether it must be in structures (garages); Where the parking is located in relation to the building and the street; Safe, clear and attractive pedestrian access through parking areas; Screening, landscaping and illumination of the parking areas from the street.

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The Land Use Code also permits shared parking in a neighborhood. For more information on designing pedestrian-friendly environments, see the Making Streets that Work tool, from NPO.

Prepared by Seattle Office of Management and Planning, Engineering Department and Department of Construction and Land Use. August, 1996 g:projects\tools\prkgoutl.doc

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APPENDIX A Comparison of on-street parking options

Parking Meters Purpose Restriction Encourages turnover Time-limits set to reflect the average shopping or business visit of the area; Meter rates set to achieve a parking turnover rate of 85% at 2hour meters and a meter feeding rate of less than 15%. At least 100 spaces available for metering A relatively dense business base; heavily used, existing time-limit parking; off-street parking is limited or costly; low risk of spillover parking Meters are only installed in commercial areas with direct support of the business owners in the area. Easier to enforce than signed parking restrictions; Meters can be removed incrementally when usage drops below 25%. May not work in areas where resident parking must also be accommodated on the street

Area required Area conditions

Other requirements Advantages & disadvantages

Time-limit parking Purpose Restriction Area required Area conditions Other requirements Advantages & disadvantages Passenger Load Zone Purpose Restriction Area required Area conditions Other requirements Advantages & disadvantages Load/unload zone Purpose Restriction Area required Area conditions Other requirements Advantages & disadvantages

Encourages turnover Time limits of 1 or 2 hrs no specific requirements Appropriate for business districts Not as easy to enforce as meters; people can dodge enforcement

Quick passenger pick-up and drop-off 3-minute time limit One per block, 20 increments as needed Business districts, either with or without parking meters Request of abutting business owners Can be shared by several businesses on a block

For businesses with quick turnarounds (e.g., dry cleaners) and delivery needs 30 minute time limit 20 minimum curb space Business districts, either with or without parking meters Request of abutting business owners Can be shared by several businesses on a block

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Comparison of on-street parking options

Truck Load Zone Purpose Restriction Area required Area conditions Other requirements Advantages & disadvantages Commercial Vehicle Load Zone Purpose Restriction Area required Area conditions Other requirements Advantages & disadvantages Primarily used for business delivery 30 minute time limit; for truck-licensed vehicles To accommodate the trucks that will use the area Truck access is only available by the street (e.g., no alleys); nonmetered areas Request of abutting business owners; Can be shared by several businesses on a block

Primarily used for business delivery 30 minutes time-limit One per block, 20 increments as needed Metered areas; Where truck access is only available by the street (e.g., no alleys) Request of abutting business owners; truck-licensed vehicles only; yellow parking meters Annual permits may be purchased to eliminate need to feed the meter.

No Parking Zone Purpose Restriction Length Area conditions Other requirements Advantages & disadvantages

Traffic movement, passage of emergency vehicles or for safety reasons Limits on-street parking for rush hours (7-9 am or 4-6 pm) or all day as needed

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APPENDIX B CITYWIDE DESIGN GUIDELINES ABOUT PARKING

The following guidelines have been excerpted from Design Review: Guidelines for Multifamily & Commercial Buildings, available from your NPO project manager or the Department of Construction and Land Use. Please consult this document for more information about how these guidelines are used in the review of development projects, and which projects are eligible. A-8 Parking and Vehicle Access: Siting should minimize the impact of automobile parking and driveways on the pedestrian environment, adjacent properties and pedestrian safety. A-9 Location of Parking on Commercial Street Fronts: Parking on a commercial street front should be minimized and where possible should be located behind a building. A-10 Corner Lots: Buildings on corner lots should be oriented to the corner and public street fronts. Parking and automobile access should be located away from corners. C-5 Structured Parking Entrances: The presence and appearance of garage entrances should be minimized so that they do not dominate the street frontage of a building D-4 Design of Parking Lots Near Sidewalks: Parking lots near sidewalks should provide adequate security and lighting, avoid encroachment of vehicles onto the sidewalk, and minimize the visual clutter of parking lot signs and equipment. D-5 Visual Impacts of Parking Structures: The visibility of all at-grade parking structures or accessory parking garages should be minimized. The parking portion of a structure should be architecturally compatible with the rest of the structures and streetscape. Open parking spaces and carports should be screened from the street and adjacent properties.

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