Ephrata to examine parking requirements

EPHRATA — Ephrata has a parking problem.

At least that’s what city council member Matt Moore discovered recently when his family’s business, Moore Furniture, undertook a major project.

“We finished a large capital project, and there were a million little hurdles to clear — fire, safety, flood control. I expected that,” Moore said during a city council meeting Wednesday.

But Moore discovered that meeting the city’s parking requirements — one parking space for every 500 square feet of floor space — was the most difficult part of the project.

“We’re an old Safeway, so I thought we had enough parking. But the requirements made it tight. And we have 90 parking spots,” he said.

Moore asked the city council to consider the city’s current regulations governing how much parking businesses outside the 12-block downtown core area of the city — the blocks to either side of Basin Street from Nat Washington Way to Third Avenue Northwest — are required to have.

Because current regulations demand businesses have more parking than they need, Moore said.

Currently, Ephrata’s municipal code mandates a certain number of parking spots based both on type and size of business. A dine-in restaurant needs one parking space for every 100 square foot of business space, while a bank needs a spot for every 200 square feet, a factory needs one space for every 1,000 square feet of manufacturing area.

There are a couple of odd exceptions, such as bowling alleys needing a parking space for each lane and churches needing a parking space for every five seats in church (though no church may have fewer than 10 parking spaces).

“I’m not a big fan of parking regulations,” said Mayor Bruce Reim. “It’s a little like telling a business how many employees they need.”

However, unlike a lot of other city laws, which are dictated by state, federal, or insurance requirements, it turns out Ephrata is completely free to determine how many parking spaces a business needs to have.

“This is not in the building code, and we can change this,” said Planning and Community Development Director Ron Sell.

City Administrator Wes Crago affirmed that, noting there is nothing in the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices — the thick guidebook published by the U.S. Department of Transportation that covers everything from highway striping to sign letting — about parking spaces.

This isn’t merely a matter of convenience, according to Council Member Valli Millard. It has also meant a loss of business for the city of Ephrata.

“A couple of lenders have told me they backed out of deals because of parking issues, and that they could not fit parking we demand on the property they have,” she said. “We don’t want to miss out on opportunities.”

So, a little stunned by the knowledge they possessed almost complete freedom on the subject, the city council agreed to study the parking situation to see what adjustments might be made to the current city code.

“We cannot conjure up more land,” Moore said.

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached via email at countygvt@columbiabasinherald.com.