HomeMy WebLinkAboutParking Stall Memo
City of Columbia Heights
To:
City of Columbia Heights Planning Commission
From:
Jeff Sargent, City Planner
Date:
1/5/2010
Re:
Parking Stall Lengths
The Planning and Zoning Commission has asked staff to look into possibly
amending the City’s ordinance as it relates to the size of parking stalls allowed
throughout the city. In April of 2007, the City Council amended the ordinance to
allow for parking stalls to be 9 feet wide by 18 feet deep if the parking stall abuts a
curb. Head-to-head parking stalls are required to be 20 feet deep.
Staff conducted a survey of other first-ring suburbs, as well as Minneapolis and St.
Paul to get a better understanding of the parking stall length requirements of similar-
situated cities. The survey revealed:
City Stall Width Stall Length
Brooklyn Center 8’8” 18’
Columbia Heights 9’ 18’
Edina 8’6” 18’
Fridley 9’ 18’
Golden Valley 9’ 18’6”
Maplewood 9’6” 18’
Minneapolis 8’6” 18’
New Brighton 9’ 18’
Plymouth 9’ 18’6”
Robbinsdale 8’6” 18’
Roseville 9’ 18’
Saint Anthony 9’ 19’
Saint Louis Park 8’6” 18’
Saint Paul 9’ 18’
West Saint Paul 9’ 20’
Like other first-ring suburbs, the City of Columbia Heights is nearly built-out, with
small commercial parcels lining the Central Avenue corridor. Prior to the Zoning
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Amendment to allow for the 18-foot parking stall length, the City Council had recently
approved 2 variances for major commercial projects decreasing the parking stall
lengths to 18 feet. Allowing for an 18-foot-deep parking stall alleviates some of the
spatial constraints that small commercial parcels present to prospective developers,
and reduces the need for the types of variances that the City Council had approved
in the past. The survey supports that other first-ring suburbs allow for shorter parking
stall lengths as well. For this reason, Staff recommends no change to the current
ordinance as it relates to parking stall sizes.
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