City may require more medical parking

June Casagrande

New medical offices in Huntington Beach need to provide one parking

space for every 175 square feet of office. Irvine requires one spot

for every 180 square feet. But Newport Beach medical offices only

need one parking space for every 250 feet.

Some city officials say that’s not enough, especially as the area

keeps expanding and a number of applications for new medical and

dental offices are coming down the pike.

City Council members on Tuesday will consider whether to study

tightening the zoning codes to require new office buildings in the

area to create more parking. And it’s an idea council members seem to

like.

“I’m all for a study,” Mayor Tod Ridgeway said.

Ridgeway explained that, in the new era of HMO-driven medical

practices, it’s become common for doctors to increase the number of

patients they schedule each hour. The result is a greater demand for

parking spaces at offices buildings and added traffic.

“Any new developments that come in should be able to handle their

parking requirements and they certainly shouldn’t add to the

problem,” said Councilman Steve Rosansky, whose district includes the

Hoag Hospital area.

Planning Department staff members brought the item to the council

because, “planning staff believes that actual parking demand for

these uses is greater than that currently required by the zoning

code,” city planner Gregg Ramirez wrote to council members.

The item, if approved on Tuesday, would mean only that the city

would study whether to change the required parking ratio. No new

figures have yet been proposed.

The matter appears on the agenda along with another item to

reconsider the permitted heights of elevator shafts on some

commercial and multifamily residential buildings. The item would make

some exceptions to height limits for elevators in cases where the

fire department requires larger elevators to hold gurneys in case of

emergency.

Ridgeway said that he doesn’t expect that the item will be

controversial because it does not apply to single-family homes.

“This should have virtually no impact on the residential

community,” Ridgeway said. “If it did apply to residential, I’d want

to study it more.”