31C - CUP - 2800 N MAIN STREET UNIT 3100

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Variance No. 2014 -05 August 25, 2014 Page 4 That there exists a special circumstance related to the property, such as size, shape, topography, location or surroundings. That the granting of the variance is necessary for the preservation and enjoyment of substantial property rights. That the granting of the variance will not be detrimental to the public or surrounding property. • That the granting of the variance will not adversely affect the General Plan. If these findings can be made, then it is appropriate to grant the variance. Conversely, the inability to make these findings would result in a denial. Using this information, staff has prepared the following analysis, which forms the basis for the recommendation contained in this report. The applicant is requesting approval of a variance to allow a reduction in required parking. The entire shopping center currently contains 4,768 parking spaces to serve all uses at the MainPlace mall. Westfield, as part of the overall anchor store reconfiguration, intends to restripe existing spaces within one of the parking structures to increase the amount of available parking spaces to 4,940. The spaces within the parking structure are currently larger than the minimum dimensions required by the SAMC; restriping the stalls to conform to the current standards will increase the amount of spaces by 172. The building proposed as the location of 24 Hour Fitness is parked at a rate of 4.1 spaces per 1,000 square feet pursuant to Variance No. 1996 -01, which set the required parking at that ratio for all uses on the project site. The variance, however, did not take into account a health club use. Section 41 -1375 of the SAMC requires one parking space per 28 square feet of physical activity area inside health clubs. Based on these requirements, 1,131 stalls are required for the health club project (calculated from approximately 31,655 square feet of activity area) and a total of 5,766 parking spaces required on the entire site. The 5,766 number results from the 1,131 stalls required by the health club and the 4,635 stalls required by Variance No. 1996 -01. Based on the SAMC requirements and the current parking variance's requirements, a deficit of 998 parking spaces or 20 percent of the required parking would occur. To analyze whether the existing parking on the site could accommodate the use, and therefore substantiate the variance request, the applicant hired the traffic engineering firm of Gibson Transportation Consulting, Inc. to provide an alternative parking standard for the health club and to prepare a shared parking analysis for the site. The parking study, using procedures developed by the Urban Land Institute (ULI) for shared parking, analyzed impacts on large shopping center parking lots that are shared by multiple land uses such as Westfield MainPlace. The study also surveyed other municipalities and the actual parking demand for their multi -use centers in an effort to provide a realistic parking demand for 24 Hour Fitness. 31 C -6