TITLE: Title
Continuation of the June 23rd Public Hearing on Land Use Ordinance Amendments to Modify the Presumptive Parking Requirement for Restaurants with Outdoor Seating
PURPOSE: The purpose of item is for the Board of Aldermen to adopt a resolution to continue its consideration of amendments to the Land Use Ordinance to modify the presumptive parking requirements for restaurants with outdoor seating in the B-1(c), B-1(g) and B-2 zoning districts to a future date.
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DEPARTMENT: Planning
CONTACT INFORMATION: Christina Moon - 919-918-7325, cmoon@townofcarrboro.org; Patricia McGuire - 919-918-7327, pmcguire@townofcarrboro.org
INFORMATION: At the June 23rd regular meeting, the Board of Aldermen opened a public hearing to consider text amendments to the Land Use Ordinance relating to parking requirements for restaurants with outdoor seating. The ordinance under consideration, if adopted, would modify the parking standards from one space per four outdoor seats to one space per eight outdoor seats within the three downtown zoning districts: B-1(c), B-1(g) and B-2 (Attachment B). Agenda materials are available at the following link:
<https://carrboro.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=388585&GUID=F75209F2-5E07-4F85-A309-5D9B50F8D7DB&Options=&Search>=. Meeting minutes, also available at the link above, are included as Attachment C.
Following the presentation of the ordinance and discussion, the Board of Aldermen requested additional information relating to travel mode behaviors and directed staff to prepare and distribute questionnaires to restaurants with outdoor seating to determine if outdoor diners are more likely to walk or bicycle to a restaurant than their indoor counterparts. Staff delivered outdoor dining surveys to twenty-one restaurants in the downtown area and received more than three hundred completed responses. During conversations with restaurant owners, staff identified another metric which may provide additional insight into diner behavior and the relationship between location, outdoor seating and parking demand. With that in mind, staff have corresponded via email to restaurant owners and managers to gain a better understanding of the typical increase in the total number of patrons, during the months when outdoor seating popular, but have yet to receive responses.
Now that the parking study is underway, compilation of this information in relation to other data collection efforts can occur. The review of the amount of parking available in the three downtown zoning districts as well as the comparative study of the presumptive parking standards in the Land Use Ordinance is expected to inform whether to reduce the parking requirement for restaurants with outdoor seating or whether to remove the requirement altogether. Once the findings from the parking study are available along with any additional information from restaurant owners, staff will bring the item back to the Board for direction and a request to set a new public hearing, as is needed.
FISCAL & STAFF IMPACT: Minimal staff impacts are anticipated in relation to continuing consideration of the proposed text amendments.
RECOMMENDATION:r Staff recommends that the Board of Aldermen consider the resolution (Attachment A) to continue the public hearing until some future date.