Section 700 Off-Street Parking and Loading page of Zoning Ordinances

SECTION 700.

OFF-STREET PARKING AND LOADING

701. Parking requirements.

No land shall be used or occupied and no structure shall be erected or used unless the off-street parking spaces required herein are provided. Such parking spaces are not required for any structure or use existing prior to the effective date of this ordinance or any amendment thereto, with parking space that does not meet the requirements of this ordinance; provided however, that parking spaces as specified in this ordinance shall be provided subject to the requirements of this section 700 for any enlargement, alteration or change to any such existing structure or use. While it is the intent of this section to require minimum off-street parking and loading facilities, excessive paving of land that supplies significantly more than the minimum numbers of spaces is discouraged. Moreover, the number of curb cuts to provide ingress and egress to parking surface lots from any street shall be the minimum required to insure the safety of motorists and pedestrians. Wherever applicable, access to parking shall be from major nonresidential streets with no or minimal access from residential streets. Drive-through windows shall be accessed by a minimum of 11-foot travel lanes with a minimum overhead clearance of 14 feet. There shall be no stacking of vehicles on any public street. Entrances and exits shall be properly signed.

701.1. Location of required parking spaces. The off-street parking spaces required by this ordinance shall be on the same lot as the structure or use they are intended to serve or on an abutting lot provided that such off-street parking spaces for business or industrial uses shall not be located in any residence or open space district where such business or industrial use is prohibited in such residence or open space district in table 1, Use Regulations. Upon application to the zoning board of review, a special use permit pursuant to subsection 906 of this ordinance may be granted by the board to allow off-street parking on other off-site lots in nonresidential districts provided that the following conditions are met in addition to the requirements of subsection 906:

Other off-site parking location is:

(A) Within 100 feet of the boundary of the lot of the principal use or structure; and/or

(B) Reasonably and safely accessible, in the opinion of the zoning board of review, either by pedestrians or other means such as tram and/or shuttle service, provided however that such off-site locations shall not substantially injure the use and enjoyment of nor significantly devalue neighboring property; and that the approval of the off-site location will not be detrimental to the general health and welfare of the community.

701.2. Minimum size of parking spaces. Each parking space shall be marked by pavement lines and contain the following minimum dimensions affecting the width and length of individual parking stalls and the width of aisles in all districts, exclusive of necessary drives and other accessways. A driveway may be considered a required parking space only for a detached single-family dwelling and need not contain pavement lines.

Minimum width		9 feet
Minimum length		18 feet
Minimum aisle width:
	90-degree angle	24 feet
	60-degree angle	18 feet
	45-degree angle	13 feet
	30-degree angle	11 feet
	0 degrees (parallel parking)	12 feet

701.3. Setbacks of parking spaces. No parking space or aisle (backup space) shall be less than ten feet from any front or corner side yard property line (see also subsection 505). No parking space or aisle shall be less than five feet from any building, except where greater setbacks are required by subsection 308.2(D) or subsection 502.3(C). Parking spaces less than ten feet from any building shall be separated from such building by raised curb, bumper or wheel guards. The requirements of this subsection shall not apply to detached single-family dwellings.

701.4. Entrance and exit. Each parking space shall be designed with adequate off-street area for approach, turning, and exit without the need or ability to use any part of a street. All driveways shall be a minimum of 12 feet in width for each lane of traffic using such driveway. However the width of any driveway shall not exceed 30 feet. No driveway shall be within 20 feet of another driveway. The requirements of this subsection shall not apply to detached single-family dwellings except that, for such uses, the width of any driveway shall not exceed 30 feet.

701.5. Shared parking. No part of an off-street parking area required for any building or use for the purpose of complying with the provisions of this section shall be included as a part of an off-street parking area similarly required for another building or use unless allowed by the zoning board of review as a special exception pursuant to subsection 906 of this ordinance and provided that the board determines that the type of structures or uses indicate that the period of usage of such structures or uses will not be simultaneous.

701.6. Construction requirements. Every parcel of land which, after the effective date of this ordinance or any amendment thereto, is changed to a parking area for more than ten vehicles, or to a drive-in business or motor vehicle sales or service establishment shall be developed as follows, subject to the approval of plans thereof by the director of public works.

(A) Such parking area shall be treated with bituminous or other surfacing and shall have appropriate bumper or wheel guards where needed. However, pervious materials or surfacing is encouraged within 200 feet of any coastal or freshwater wetlands as defined by subsections 200.36 and 200.146 of this ordinance.

(B) The interior and perimeter of all parking areas shall be suitably landscaped in accordance with subsection 505.5, Parking Lot Buffers.

(C) Any light used to illuminate said parking area shall be so arranged as to reflect the light away from adjoining premises and streets by means of shielding or similar manner.

701.6A. Construction requirements for Warwick Station Intermodal and Gateway districts. Adequate off-street parking and loading shall be provided to prevent on-street traffic congestion. The interior circulation system shall be designed to provide safe and convenient access to all structures, uses and/or parking spaces; parking areas shall be protected with suitable guards, rails, islands, crosswalks, speed bumps, and similar devises deemed necessary by the Warwick Station Redevelopment Agency. The layout and design of vehicular and pedestrian circulation, including walkways, interior drives and parking areas, shall provide for safe general interior circulation, separation of pedestrian and vehicular traffic, service traffic, loading areas, and arrangement and use of parking areas.

(A) Parking lots shall be located behind, beneath or within commercial buildings.

(B) Whenever possible, surface level parking lots on adjoining commercial lots shall be connected internally to each other to allow for through traffic between and reducing the need for multiple curb cuts.

(C) Parking lots containing ten or more spaces shall be planted with at least one tree per three spaces, no smaller than two inches caliper and at least five feet in height at the time of planting and shall be of a species characterized by hardiness within the area. Each tree shall surrounded by no less than 40 square feet of permeable unpaved area.

701.7. Off-street parking space requirements. The number of off-street parking spaces for each use shall be required as follows:

Use		Requirement Parking Spaces per Unit or Gross Floor Area (GFA)
Residential:
	Single-family	2/dwelling unit (DU)
	Two-family	2/DU
	Multiple-family	2/DU
	Elderly housing	1/DU
	Roominghouse	1/Room
Office:
	Banks and other financial institutions	1/200 square feet GFA
	Office, professional service, laboratory	1/300 square feet GFA
	Medical office and clinic	1/200 square feet GFA
Service:
	Business and commercial service	1/250 square feet GFA
	Hotel/motel	1/bedroom
	Funeral home	Greater of 8/parlor or 2.5 spaces/100 square feet of assembly area
	Theater and auditorium	1/4 seats
	Indoor commercial recreation and coin-operated amusement establishment	1/200 square feet GFA
	Golf course	1/5 members
	Driving range	1/tee
	Outdoor commercial recreation	1/1,000 square feet of lot area
	Marina, yacht club	0.75/slip(1), (2)
	Yacht club with indoor facilities	0.75/slip(1), (2) plus 1/200 square feet GFA
	Gas and service station	1/employee plus 4/bay
Retail:
	Restaurant	1/100 square feet GFA
	Nightclub	1/50 square feet GFA
	Fast food restaurant	1/50 square feet GFA
	New and used vehicle and boat sales	1/200 square feet GFA
	Furniture, appliance or carpet sales	1/400 square feet GFA
	Other retail uses	1/200 square feet GFA
Transportation and utility:
	Passenger terminal	1/200 square feet GFA
	Public and private utilities	1/300 square feet GFA
	Commercial vehicle terminal	1/400 square feet GFA
Institutional:
	Place of worship	1/5 seats
	Preschool	1/500 square feet GFA
	Primary or junior high school	5/classroom
	High school	1/5 students
	Junior college, college, university, vocational or business school	1/3 students
	Resident dormitory, fraternity or sorority	1/bed
	Hospital	1/bed
	Nursing, convalescent home	1/2 beds
	Library, museum	1/400 square feet GFA
Industrial:
	Wholesale business and storage space and warehouses	1/500 square feet GFA
	Manufacturing, processing, assembly or packaging	1/400 square feet GFA

(1) Ten percent of spaces provided shall be 9.5 feet by 35 feet to accommodate cars with trailers.

(2) This standard applies to any slips added after the date of the adoption of this amendment to the ordinance. For all slips in existence prior to this amendment, the parking requirement for slips shall be 0.5/slip.

701.8. Handicapped parking. Handicapped parking requirements shall conform to the Rhode Island State Building Code sections 14--16, as amended.

701.9. Other uses. Parking requirements for uses not listed in subsection 701.7 shall be determined by the building official.
(Ord. No. O-98-44, § I(Exh. A), 12-14-98; Ord. No. O-99-26, § I(Exh. A), 6-21-99; Ord. No. O-02-16, § I, 7-23-02)

702. Loading requirements.

No land shall be used or occupied and no structures shall be erected or used for commercial or industrial purposes unless the off-street loading spaces required herein are provided. Such loading spaces are not required for any commercial or industrial structure or use existing prior to the effective date of this ordinance or any amendment thereto, with loading spaces that do not meet the requirements of this ordinance, provided, however, that off-street loading spaces as specified in this ordinance shall be provided subject to the requirements of this section 700 for any enlargement or alteration to any such existing structure or use.

702.1. Location of required loading spaces. The off-street loading spaces required by this ordinance shall be in all cases on the same lot or parcel of land as the use or structure they are intended to serve. In no case shall any required off-street loading space be part of an area used to satisfy the off-street parking requirements of this ordinance. Each loading area shall be designed with adequate off-street area as required for parking spaces by subsection 701.4. To the extent possible, loading areas shall be to the rear of any building.

702.2. Number of required loading spaces.

(A) For each commercial and industrial enterprise of over 2,000 square feet of gross floor or ground area in which commodities are sold, displayed, serviced, repaired, altered, or fabricated as the principal use of the enterprise, the first off-street loading space shall be required for the first 2,000 square feet of gross floor area. Thereafter, one off-street loading space shall be required for every 10,000 square feet of gross floor area.

Each off-street loading space shall consist of the following dimensions:

Length: 60 feet.

Width: 14 feet.

Clearance: 15 feet.

(B) Additional off-street loading spaces shall be required by the building inspector when necessary to provide adequate area for off-street loading. Detailed plans for off-street loading space provision and use may be required before the issuance of any building permit.