Multiple-Family Standards only recognize one style and orientation of parking courts and do <br />not represent parking in urban infill. <br />The size and dimensions of the site allow for more efficient parking with aisles in a north- <br />south orientation and with clustered parking (not in a linear fashion as shown in 9.5500 <br />diagrams). We propose smaller courts divided by islands that divide the courts perpendicular <br />to drive aisles, in lieu of courts divided in the direction of the drive aisles. This allows for better <br />distribution of trees and plantings throughout the parking lot, accomplishing the goals of the <br />landscape standards (Encourage safe and efficient on-site circulation; improve the <br />appearance and visual character, provide shade as a means of mitigating heat and exposure <br />in parking lots and other paved areas). <br />The project also proposes an underground parking garage that will provide approximately 60 <br />parking spaces. The underground garage reduces the number of spaces required for the <br />surface parking area and allows for more open space for the project. The underground <br />parking serves the housing, and the surface parking serves both the commercial and <br />residential uses. <br />2. Limitations on the size of individual parking lots in multiple-family <br />development. <br />The applicant proposed a design that creates more smaller courts, with more but smaller <br />buffers, for an increase in trees, shade, and buffering of parking and neighbors. <br />3. Minimal negative aspects of parking uses in multiple-family <br />developments. <br />The applicant mitigates the negative aspects of parking by first placing up to 60 parking <br />spaces below grade in a parking garage. The applicant also proposes to mitigate the negative <br />aspects of parking uses through right sizing the parking court for the intended uses and in <br />placing the amenity open space on the street sides of the building. <br />The applicant proposes to allocate some of the parking court landscape buffer to the <br />perimeter of the site as street frontage amenity space and as buffer to the adjacent property. <br />The Interior Parking Area Landscaping requirements per 9.6420(3)(e) will be maintained in <br />the final design. <br />Where cost considerations preclude parking beneath or within residential <br />buildings, combinations of partial and interrupted parking drives; on- <br />street parking; and small, dispersed parking courts are an acceptable <br />alternative. <br />ADJUSTMENT #2: BUILDING LENGTH <br />To provide ground floor units in a mixed-use building in the C-2 zone, the land use code <br />requires adherence to Multi-Family Standards, Section 9.5500. <br />Section 9.5500(2)(a): "...multiple family standards shall apply to all <br />multiple family developments in all zones except commercial." This <br />provision exempts multiple family developments from multiple family <br />standards, but item (b) requires the standards when "Multiple family <br />standards shall also apply to multiple family developments in commercial <br />Page 3 of 4 <br />