Bristol officials have recently received a number of requests for parking variances that have been approved by city council, so updates and improvements to the current ordinance dealing with off-street parking are being considered.
Discussion of the possible changes is on the agenda for the Monday meeting of the city’s planning commission.
June McIlquham, an urban planner for the city’s community development and planning department, said Friday that the commission won’t take any action because they are just starting the process.
The commission set up a subcommittee to study the possible changes, and they have met twice. Members of the subcommittee will share their initial ideas with the full commission.
The plan is to make the parking requirements more flexible and reduce the number of variance requests, McIlquham said.
Most of the requests for variances are to have fewer than the number of parking spaces required in the ordinance, she said. Many of the buildings in the city are old and were built before the zoning ordinances were in place. When the buildings are renovated or expanded, the owners must come into compliance with current ordinances, which often means more parking is required.
“When parking ordinances come into play, oftentimes these properties don’t have enough physical space. … So, a lot of them are requesting just the lower minimum number and the council has granted that in the past,” McIlquham said.
The current ordinance requires two spaces for homes; one space for each unit in a hotel or motel; one space for every four seats in a restaurant, church or other place of public assembly; and one space per 200 square feet of sales floor area for the first 5,000 square feet, plus one space for each additional 500 square feet for retail stores.
The planning commission will meet at noon on Monday in the council chambers at City Hall, 300 Lee St.
