Some Businesses Must Provide More Parking, County Board Decides

Los Angeles County supervisors, taking the first steps in a proposed overhaul of county parking regulations, voted Thursday to require commercial businesses and medical offices to provide more parking spaces for customers.

Opponents of the new parking regulations immediately challenged the ordinance, saying it will worsen air quality standards and hamper the development of mini-malls.

But the board sided with county planners, contending that the amendments to the parking ordinance will reduce parking problems.

Under the new regulations, a store owner must increase the number of parking spaces for his customers based on how large his place of business is. The formula will change from one parking space per 400 square feet of floor area to one space per 250 square feet.

In addition, the width of parking spaces must also grow.

For example, parking spaces for compact cars must expand from the current width of 7 1/2 feet to 8 feet while spaces for full-size cars increases from 8 feet wide to 8 1/2 feet. “We have to take note of the tremendous number of shopping centers that are being built in the county,” Supervisor Ed Edelman said. “We have to ensure that there is adequate parking for those facilities. Otherwise, the neighbors are impacted, and we have a serious problem.”

The supervisors, following the lead of the Regional Planning Commission, also agreed that the change is necessary to bring county standards closer to those of other cities and counties.

Supervisor Pete Schabarum, who joined Edelman and Board Chairman Deane Dana in approving the regulations, had initiated the changes after expressing concern about the proliferation of commercial establishments in the county’s unincorporated areas.

“I felt and do feel strongly that our current parking ordinances are insufficient and unrealistic in meeting the practical parking requirements (of commercial centers),” Schabarum said.

He described the new regulations as part of a larger, “rather ominous package” of parking restrictions that the board will consider in November. The later changes would apply to parking at apartments, hotels and industrial businesses.

But for now, the board action only affects commercial and medical offices as well as animal hospitals, libraries, museums and galleries. Office buildings are exempt.

The parking restrictions will affect new or pending development proposals approved by the Planning Commission after Oct. 15, according to county planners.

After voting against the new regulations, Supervisor Mike Antonovich said that increasing the number of spaces will promote more parking spaces and will discourage the use of car pools, public transportation and other efforts to improve air quality.

Stanley Hart, a structural engineer representing the Sierra Club, voiced similar concerns during Thursday’s public hearing.