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Commission OKs proposal to accommodate new businesses The Alpine Planning Commission took steps to make their city a place that is more accommodating to new businesses. On Aug. 19, the commission voted to change the parking requirement for office buildings from five spaces to four for every 1,000 feet of building space.
This still needs to be approved by the Alpine City Council but this change would ease the burden of builders who want to erect a building with a nice entryway. In the past this would be more difficult but with the requirements being eased 20 percent this should encourage more construction. The proposal brought before the commission was whether to change it to either four or three and a half stalls per 1,000 feet. They also nailed down a firm requirement that the footage of the building would be determined by total space instead of usable space which has been applied in the past. "I did the research and Orem uses four," commission member Steve Cosper said. Cosper has constructed a building in Orem and has expressed a desire to bring Alpine's requirements into line with surrounding cities. "The current language says, 'excludes garage'," City Councilman Jim Tracy said. He then brought up the proposed arts center which is considering underground parking, and stated that this should be counted towards the buildings parking requirement. "It's public parking if the public has access to it," he said. "A garage counts as storage," commission member Brad Reneer said. The discussion went back and forth ending on a final motion to strike the language in the ordinance excluding garages. "As far as residential garages are concerned, I can't think of a time in 13 years we've used this," Alpine City Staff member Shane Sorenson said about the differences between residential and office buildings. The motion was made to recommend the proposed changes to the Alpine City Council by commission member Troy Stout striking the language about garages and changing the requirement to four spaces per 1,000 square feet. The motion was seconded by commission member Steve McArthur. Planning Commission Chairman Jannicke Brewer then opened it up to discussion before a vote. "I still think it's too restrictive," commission member Jason Thelin said. Thelin is also in the construction business. He went on to say that the new requirement would still discourage builders from constructing nicer buildings with appealing entryways because the space would be counted against them when it came to parking. "When the economy is good, people build nicer buildings, when it is bad, they build tight buildings which maximize space," Alpine City Staff member April Riley said. After the discussion ended, the vote was cast unanimously. The final ordinance was to have been on the agenda of the Alpine City Council on Aug. 26. |
