§ 28-1651. Unlawful elimination of required parking or landscaping.

(1)

(a)

Except as provided below, it shall be unlawful for an owner or operator of any nonresidential structure or use to discontinue, change, limit the use of or dispense with the required parking facilities without establishing alternative vehicle parking facilities which meet the requirements of this article. The denial of unrestricted use and access to employees or business invitees to any required nonresidential parking facilities during the hours within which the uses which require the parking are in operation is a violation of this article.

(b)

Except as provided below, it shall be unlawful for an owner or operator of any residential structure or use to discontinue, change, limit the use of or dispense with the required parking facilities without establishing alternative vehicle parking facilities which meet the requirements of this article, provided however, residential parking spaces may be restricted to the use of a resident of the complex, or in a manner consistent with the residential use of the property.

(c)

Valet parking. Up to 15 percent of the existing on-site inventory of approved parking spaces may be reserved in order to accommodate valet parking service operations provided the following criteria are met:

(i)

The parking area designated for valet parking has been approved by city staff responsible for public works review based upon a plan which shall include but not be limited to: identifying the type and nature of the use for which the valet service is being provided, the location of the valet parking and self-parking spaces, the pick up and drop off area(s), a site traffic circulation plan, and the number of personnel needed to operate the valet service. The city may require payment of a fee for inspection and other enforcement activities pursuant to the municipal facilities and services user fee schedule.

(ii)

The parking area designated for valet use does not include the most convenient parking for patrons not utilizing the valet parking service.

(iii)

The operation of the valet service does not encroach into the travel lanes of the public right of way or other vehicular use area open to the public. In the event that use of the public ROW or other vehicular use area owned by or controlled by the city or the community redevelopment agency is required in order to accommodate the valet operations a license agreement reviewed by the planning and zoning board and approved by the city council and/or the community redevelopment agency, as applicable, including the payment of a fee for the privilege of utilizing the public ROW or other vehicular use area as described herein shall be required.

(iv)

Reservation of valet parking spaces pursuant to this section shall not be permitted if the subject property has fewer than 50 parking spaces or is operating under a shared use parking approval based upon a shared use analysis.

(v)

In the event that the city traffic engineer determines that the valet parking operation is creating an unsafe condition and is a threat to public safety the city manager or designee may revoke the approval for said valet parking operation and the valet parking service will cease operation until such time as a solution for resolving the unsafe condition is presented by the valet operator for review and approval by the city.

(d)

Reserved parking. In addition to the reservation for valet parking service provided in (c) above, up to 10 percent of approved existing parking spaces may be reserved for individual tenant occupancy and their patrons in an office building and for employee parking in a commercial retail shopping center provided the following criteria are met:

(i)

The area designated as reserved for office tenants, patrons and retail employee parking has been reviewed and approved by city staff responsible for public works review. The city may require payment of a fee for inspection and other enforcement activities pursuant to the municipal facilities and services user fee schedule.

(ii)

The parking area designated as reserved for office use tenants, patrons and retail employee parking does not include the most convenient parking on the site that should otherwise be made available for high turnover visitor parking.

(iii)

Reservation of parking spaces under this section shall not be permitted if the subject property has fewer than 50 approved existing parking spaces or is operating under a shared use parking approval based upon a shared use analysis.

(2)

It shall be unlawful for an owner or operator of a structure or use affected by this article to change a required landscaping area in order to obtain additional or alternative parking arrangements.

(Ord. No. 253, § 5.1, 2-28-56; Ord. No. 644, § 1, 5-31-61; Ord. No. 1173, § 1, 11-22-66; Ord. No. 2839, §§ 1, 2, 11-20-80; Ord. No. 3116, § 1, 7-27-82; Ord. No. 3422, § 1, 8-27-85; Ord. No. 3457, § 1, 11-12-85; Ord. No. 3581, § 4, 10-14-86; Ord. No. 3667, § 1, 1-26-88; Ord. No. 3705, § 26, 7-26-88; Ord, No. 3717, § 2, 11-22-88; Ord. No. 4904, § 1, 11-22-05; Ord. No. 4971, § 1, 2-13-07; Ord. No. 5130, § 1, 4-13-10)