City adopts parking rule changes, hopes for new business boom

Published 2:48 pm Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Parking-related costs for new and existing businesses in Langley’s Central Business District got a whole lot cheaper last week.

The City Council Tuesday voted to adopt what officials have dubbed “sweeping changes” to the city’s existing parking rules in the hopes of supporting local businesses, promoting infill development and attracting new commercial interests to the Village by the Sea.

Mayor Larry Kwarsick said the rule changes are a departure from the norm, especially for small communities, which commonly struggle with a lack of parking in downtown areas.

“This is an outside of the box approach to give small projects … an opportunity to come into the community,” Kwarsick said.

The changes eliminate the parking requirement for each business up to 5,000 square feet, though hotels, motels and marinas are exempt as they require on-site parking in order to function.

Also discarded was a hefty fee charged to business that couldn’t meet the city’s required number of parking spaces. For each space it couldn’t provide, merchants had to pay the city $5,000.

City officials champion the reduced regulation as offering greater flexibility for off-site parking agreements between businesses and landowners. It allows the city to also waive all or part of the parking requirement based on a site specific parking study.

The changes are being applauded by merchants.

“We applaud the efforts of those who have worked hard to bring about this needed change,” said Dog House owner Charlie Kleiner, in a Wednesday news release. “Under the previous rule, we would have incurred an assessment for the parking offset that would have caused us to scale back our plans to utilize the basement in the Olympic Club ‘Dog House’ building.”

The results of a downtown parking study performed by the planning department in 2011 provided the foundation for the ordinance changes. It revealed peak parking demand at about 67 percent, which left about 180 spaces available during peak occupancy.

According to city officials, it was also part of a larger and ongoing effort to support economic develop and businesses in Langley. They range from reductions in building and water service connection fees to plans for the redevelopment of Second Street and a street cafe ordinance that stands to bolster food-service businesses.