Building parking requirements

[MountainDew]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Oregon

I lease an industrial space in a large industrial building. The written lease does not have any wording what-so-ever about parking or the number of vehicles I am allowed in the shared parking lot. The landlord is trying to tell me I am only allowed to use one parking space, and she keeps trying to make it smaller and smaller. The problem is her parking lot is too small for the number of tennants in the building in relation to the number of required off street parking places by the city. (they added another building but did not add any parking)

The space I lease is approximately 1200sq ft. The "off street parking" section of the city code says that at least 1 parking space is required for every 500sq ft of gross floor area in my zoning. Legally speaking, that means I should have at least two if not three parking places, am I wrong?

Since I don't own the building, and the parking lot has at least 20 total spaces, can the landlord tell me that I'm only allowed to use one space? Even though the parking lot is technically large enough, I have been told I am not allowed to use as much space as the city requires for my building's purpose.

 

[sandyclaus]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Oregon

I lease an industrial space in a large industrial building. The written lease does not have any wording what-so-ever about parking or the number of vehicles I am allowed in the shared parking lot. The landlord is trying to tell me I am only allowed to use one parking space, and she keeps trying to make it smaller and smaller. The problem is her parking lot is too small for the number of tennants in the building in relation to the number of required off street parking places by the city. (they added another building but did not add any parking)

The space I lease is approximately 1200sq ft. The "off street parking" section of the city code says that at least 1 parking space is required for every 500sq ft of gross floor area in my zoning. Legally speaking, that means I should have at least two if not three parking places, am I wrong?

Since I don't own the building, and the parking lot has at least 20 total spaces, can the landlord tell me that I'm only allowed to use one space? Even though the parking lot is technically large enough, I have been told I am not allowed to use as much space as the city requires for my building's purpose.

The city zoning specifies that the BUILDING should have at least 1 parking space for every 500sq ft of space. From your post, you specify that the building's parking lot has at least 20 spaces. I'd say that the city zoning requirements have been met with the number of spaces.

Unless your lease specifies a certain number of spaces, the LL can do whatever they want as far as distributing the allowed parking to all of their tenants. There is nothing that requires a specific tenant to have 1 parking space per 500sq ft that they lease, only that the BUILDING has it (and it does).

 

[MountainDew]

Well, actually it's a bit more complicated than that. I guess you could call this building "mixed use", and different uses come with different parking requirements. For example there is an apartment and two offices. For offices the city says 1 for every 400 sq ft, and 2 spaces for every dwelling unit.

It also says:

151.614 COMMON FACILITIES FOR MIXED USES.
(A) In the case of mixed uses, the total requirements for off-street parking spaces shall be the sum of the requirements for the various uses. Off-street parking facilities for one use shall not be considered as providing parking facilities for any other use except as provided below"

(nothing important below)

If you add all the units in the building, and all of the parking spaces they are each required to have, there is not enough.

I guess another way to put it, is can a landlord fully lease out a 30 space required building, with only 20 parking spaces? That's basically the problem. They had enough spaces when the building was built, but then they converted part of the parking lot into more square feet, without adding any parking.

 

[sandyclaus]

Well, actually it's a bit more complicated than that. I guess you could call this building "mixed use", and different uses come with different parking requirements. For example there is an apartment and two offices. For offices the city says 1 for every 400 sq ft, and 2 spaces for every dwelling unit.

It also says:

(nothing important below)

If you add all the units in the building, and all of the parking spaces they are each required to have, there is not enough.

I guess another way to put it, is can a landlord fully lease out a 30 space required building, with only 20 parking spaces? That's basically the problem. They had enough spaces when the building was built, but then they converted part of the parking lot into more square feet, without adding any parking.

You're not getting this.

The zoning requires that the BUILDING have a specific number of parking spaces per sq. ft. It says nothing about any individual tenant being entitled to a specific number of parking spaces per sq. ft.

Yes, the LL can distribute his required number of parking spaces among his tenants as he chooses. If your lease specifies you receive a certain number of spaces, than that governs your situation. Otherwise, the LL can give as many or as few to each of his tenants as he sees fit. Unless, of course, you can provide some legal requirement for him to do otherwise?

 

[MountainDew]

You're not getting this.

You're not getting this. Add up the total square footage of the building. There is not enough parking spaces to match. Additionally the law says all parking stalls must be "substatially marked and maintained", and there are no markings which only creates further problems...

Let me make it more specific for you:
Unit 1: 600 sq ft office, 1 space per 400sq ft required
Unit 2: 1000 sq ft office, 1 space per 400sq ft required
Unit 3: 1000 sq ft industrial space, 1 space per 500sq ft required
Unit 4: 1000 sq ft industrial space, 1 space per 500sq ft required
Unit 5: 1000 sq ft industrial space, 1 space per 500sq ft required
Unit 6: 1000 sq ft industrial space, 1 space per 500sq ft required
Unit 7: 3000 sq ft industrial space, 1 space per 500sq ft required
Unit 8: 2000 sq ft apartment, 2 spaces required per dwelling unit
Unit 9: That's me, 1200sq ft industrial space, seperate building, shared parking lot, 1 space per 500 sq ft required

I was wrong before, there are only 15 total spaces for the building, that isn't enough. There are at least 23 spaces required, if not more. It's hard to tell exactly how many spaces there are since nothing is striped. I'm also not sure if they are required to round the square footage up or not.

151.614 COMMON FACILITIES FOR MIXED USES.
(A) In the case of mixed uses, the total requirements for off-street parking spaces shall be the sum of the requirements for the various uses. Off-street parking facilities for one use shall not be considered as providing parking facilities for any other use except as provided below"

I don't understand how the number of parking spaces granted by the landlord can be smaller than the number of parking spaces required by the city for the specific use the building was leased for??

 

[Zigner]

Let's go at this another way:

Let's say that you call the city and the city comes out and FORCES the LL to create more parking spots. The LL can STILL assign you 1 (and only 1) spot if s/he chooses.

 

[MountainDew]

Let's go at this another way:

Let's say that you call the city and the city comes out and FORCES the LL to create more parking spots. The LL can STILL assign you 1 (and only 1) spot if s/he chooses.

That is likely what I'll do, but:

how can the number of parking spaces granted by the landlord be smaller than the number of parking spaces required by the city for the specific use the building was leased for??

The landlord knew full well what the building was going to be used for before signing the lease.

Put it another way:
I lease a grocery store. I tell the owner that's what my useage of the space will be. Can the owner still say I only get 1 space when the city requires more?

Additionally, all "dwelling units" are required to have at least 2 off street parking spaces. If I rent a house, is the LL allowed to only let me use one parking space, knowing full well 2 are required for residential use?

Also, is the landlord legally allowed to rent a space with "street parking only" when the city says off street parking is required?

 

[Andy0192]

As the tenant in a commercial property lease, it's your responsibility to negotiate for the amount of parking space that you (and your clients) might require.

The city code can dictate what the zoning and building codes can require, but the landlord can negotiate (or not negotiate) a different parameter with the tenant.

As Zigner stated, if you feel the building is not up to code, feel free to get code enforcement involved. The landlord may be forced to increase the number of parking spaces (or apply for a simple variance -if they didn't get one already when the additional building was built), but the Landlord can't be forced to give you a larger parking area.

 

[MountainDew]

Let me put it another way.

Landlord owns a building that is required by law to have 30 parking spaces.
The building the landord owns only has 20 parking spaces.
Is the landlord legally allowed to rent out the building to full capacity which would require 30 spaces?

If the landlord decided not to rent that building, but instead open their own store, it would be considered illegal.

The reason for these laws is to prevent congestion on the city streets, I can't imagine why the city would let the landlord just make up whatever rules they want?! The city doesn't usually care if you are a landlord or a tennant in regards to parking. I've already sent an email to the city code enforcement officer, we'll see what he has to say.

 

[Zigner]

Seriously - than answer doesn't change no matter how many times you ask.

 

[MountainDew]

Seriously - than answer doesn't change no matter how many times you ask.

So, it would be illegal for the building owner to open the same kind of establishment there, due to parking restrictions, but if the owner rents the building out then the parking restrictions no longer apply? Is that correct?

 

[Zigner]

So, it would be illegal for the building owner to open the same kind of establishment there, due to parking restrictions, but if the owner rents the building out then the parking restrictions no longer apply?

The BUILDING has X spots. The building is required to have Y spots. Right?

Now, please point out where each tenant is entitled to a specific number of spots...


As I said, no matter how you want to spin your question, the answer is the same. The LL has assigned you one spot. You get one spot.

 

[MountainDew]

The BUILDING has X spots. The building is required to have Y spots. Right?

Yep.

Now, please point out where each tenant is entitled to a specific number of spots...

Building code says 1 space is required per 500sq ft of floor space. I am in legal control of 1200sq ft of floor space. If someone rents 1000sq ft of floor space how are they not entitled to two spots? It doesn't say anything about landlords being able to modify this rule. Landlord knew full well what the useage of each space would be before leasing, and leased more spots than she has available.

If the landlord says "rent this space to open up X business", but doesn't allow enough parking spaces for X business, doesn't that make the landlord a liar?

 

[Zigner]

I'm out.

 

[MountainDew]

I'm out.

Nice how you avoid all the pointed questions...

So, theoretically speaking, I could open a 50 unit apartment complex with only two parking spots to share? Even though the law says 2 spaces per dwelling unit? Is that how it works?