AgdaPkt 2000-06-12 - Laserfiche WebLink

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'7~4 and not an eyesore of cars and garages immediately along the street. However, staff does recognize that many of the garages are actually converted to storage areas, with cars usually parked in the driveway. This condition is not illegal and we do not force people to park in their garages. The City currently does not accept any 'tandem' parking spaces (spaces right behind each other) in the driveway as fulfilling the required parking even if they are outside the required front yard setback of 20 ft. The reason for this is that the Zoning Ordinance seeks to ensure full-time access to a garage, and tandem parking may prevent this. Of all the requirements of the Accessory Dwelling Unit Ordinance, the parking requirement is one of the most limiting factors in achieving more legally built units. Should the City Council chose any of the options described below, existing illegal units could be legalized. In other words, easing the parking requirement would be the basis of an amnesty program. Usually a City's first and major effort in proposing an amnesty program for illegal second units is to relax its parking requirement. Daly City is an example of one City's successful amnesty program that did relax parking requirements. It created a 2-year window of opportunity during which most illegal second units could be legalized providing there was only one dwelling unit on the property. In summary, Daly City reduced its parking standards for second units during the amnesty program in 2 ways. First, they reduced the number of required parking spaces (four parking spaces) based on the following criteria: for houses built before 1949 (which were smaller), a total of 2 off-street parking spaces were required. These spaces could be covered or uncovered; for houses built after 1949 (which were usually larger), a total 3 off- street parking spaces were required to be provided, either covered or uncovered. Second, Daly City allowed parking in the required setback area other than the driveway. A paving ordinance was adopted that allowed a concrete slab to be poured in the front yard areas within the set-back, to provide additional parking spaces so the off-street parking requirements could be satisfied for the amnesty applicant. It should be noted that this was done in concert with the Project Homesafe Amnesty Program only. At the completion of the amnesty program, the paving ordinance was eliminated. During that time, Daly City also lowered its inspection fees and waived any penalties. Currently, Daly City does not allow the setback area to be used to satisfy parking requirements. They do allow tandem parking for existing second unit properties, but not for new second unit construction. Additionally, all of the four required parking spaces for new two unit properties have to be non-tandem covered spaces. Existing properties, when applying for second unit approvals, are required to provide a minimum of two covered spaces and two uncovered. These can be tandem, up to two cars. In other words, the applicant would need to provide a two-car garage and a driveway with the two additional parking spaces, to satisfy the parking requirements. Landowners with illegal units, who did not seek to legalize their units during the amnesty period, if caught later, are required to comply with the current standards (2 parking spaces for the main house and 2 for the second units) or remove the illegal units, and pay a $1,000 fine in either event. Thus Daly City temporarily relaxed parking standards for existing properties with illegal units; but, they did not permanently change their standards. 3