12.56.110 Parking standards.
A. Required number of stalls shall be in accordance with Chapter 12.16 BMC;
B. Cooperative joint usage of parking lots by two or more commercial businesses within a development shall be encouraged when the suitability of this cooperative agreement is determined. Criteria for such a determination includes:
1. The size of the joint parking lot which shall be governed by the timing of customer usage of the space and of the peak business periods of participating businesses.
a. When peak periods of business overlap for two or more businesses wishing a joint parking lot, the required number of parking stalls may be reduced to 75 percent of the total parking stalls required for all businesses.
b. The number of parking stalls for two businesses shall be the same as that required for the larger of the two when it is shown that one of the two cooperating businesses is relatively inactive during peak periods of the other.
c. The number of parking stalls for three or more businesses with nonoverlapping peak hours shall be at least the same as that required by the largest business. Additional parking stalls may be required by the community development director;
2. Location of the parking area either on the same lot or within 200 feet of the building it is intended to serve. For longer term parking, such as employee or proprietor parking, portions of the parking may be located up to 500 feet from the building if such an arrangement is found by the community development director to adequately serve the needs of the development for parking;
3. Adequate signing in the parking area and entrance to the cooperative establishments to clarify for customers that the parking area is common to both;
4. Safe and adequate pedestrian connections between the parking area and the businesses;
C. A minimum of 50 percent of the space saved on a site through joint use of parking areas must be set aside as open space with pedestrian access and allocated equally among businesses;
D. All approved joint uses of parking areas, including use by the public of private lots adjacent to public recreation areas, shall be made permanent by the execution of a written agreement approved by the city attorney which makes the agreement continuous during the occupancy of the business unless satisfactory alternative arrangements are authorized by the community development director. This agreement shall be filed with the city clerk and recorded with the King County department of records and elections or the Snohomish County auditor’s office at the expense of the applicant;
E. Where pedestrian walks are used in parking lots for the use of foot traffic only, they shall be curbed, or raised six inches above the lot surface;
F. Parking lots utilizing material that is to some degree pervious and creates the visual impression of natural ground coverage are encouraged, but no compensating increase in hard surface allotment shall be given;
G.
1. The feasibility of reducing the number of parking stalls required to be provided as part of the development through the use of transportation system management (TSM) techniques shall be addressed. Examples of TSM techniques include, but are not limited to, the following:
a. Carpooling,
b. Vanpooling,
c. Subsidized bus passes,
d. A monthly charge for parking,
e. A monthly subsidy for use of ridesharing,
f. Use of flextime;
2. The number of and length of time per day stalls will be available for carpool/vanpool use, the percentages of employees which will use each system, the economic incentives to be used to encourage ride-sharing use, the use of flextime and/or joint parking facilities, the level of bus service provided to the site, and any other strategies which will be utilized to decrease the amount of traffic generated by the development should be addressed. If an applicant demonstrates these techniques will be successful and obligates themself to implement and maintain them on an ongoing basis, the city may reduce the required number of parking stalls below the number required by this title. The land for the required but unprovided parking stalls shall be set aside as open space until/if it is needed for additional parking. If the city finds the techniques were not successful, an applicant shall provide the additional parking stalls or reduce the building area utilized by the use. (Ord. 2200 § 2 (Exh. B), 2016; Ord. 2025 § 2 (Exh. C), 2009; Ord. 1946 § 2, 2005; Ord. 1815 § 1, 2000; Ord. 1629 § 1, 1996. Formerly 12.56.220).