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Appendix C – Parking Code Analysis Town of Hempstead, Regional Shopping Malls

Parking Code Analysis Regional Shopping Malls

Presently, the Town of Hempstead Building Zone Ordinance (“BZO”) Article XXXI, Section 319 establishes the requirements for off‐street parking for various uses within the Town. Based on these regulations, a parking requirement for each use type within a regional shopping mall must be calculated and added together to establish the final parking requirement. As a result of the current BZO parking requirements, a substantial number of parking spaces are required to be provided under the current parking requirements than are actually used (see results of parking surveys below). This results in excessive and unnecessary parking supply. In a multiuse development like a Regional Shopping Mall, there is a symbiotic relationship between the

multiple entities that comprise the shopping mall. There may be some single purpose trips made to the

shopping mall; however, a significant portion of the trips to the shopping mall will result in multiple

visits to various entities of the mall. Trips to the stores, restaurants, movie theaters create the

opportunity for multi‐purpose trips and thus shared parking. Given this interaction, the shopping malls

need for parking must be viewed not as a standalone use but one cohesive mixture of retail resulting in

a combined parking generation rate that will be lower than one would calculate if the shopping mall was

viewed as only individual uses within the site.

To determine a recommended parking ratio for the proposed Article XLI BZO amendments, a number of

resources were consulted and considered.

Guidance for Recommended Parking Ratios

Several planning studies have been completed and provide guidance on parking demand for shopping

centers. A study titled “Parking Requirements for Shopping Centers” prepared under direction of

Urban Land Institute (ULI) and the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) is the most

comprehensive guide for parking requirements for Shopping Centers available in this field. This study

was unique as it represented data collection and analysis of hundreds of existing Shopping Center

throughout the nation.

The ULI and ICSC define a shopping center as a group of retail and other commercial establishments that

are planned, developed, and managed as a single property. The primary goal of this study was to

recommend parking demand ratio for shopping centers in United States, based on observation of

parking at existing centers. To achieve this objective, the study collected and evaluated data on a wide

range of factors influencing travel behavior and parking demand at shopping centers.

The key recommendations of this study provide a set of base recommendations for parking supply based

on center size and makeup. Table 1 below shows the recommended number of parking spaces per

1,000 SF of gross leasable area (GLA). The results excluded centers in which 20% or more of occupied

GLA is composed of restaurants, entertainment, and/or cinema space. The appropriate number of

spaces for these centers is suggested to be calculated using shared parking methodology which is

defined by ULI as “parking spaces that can be used to serve two or more individual land uses without

conflict or encroachment.”


Table 1: Recommended Parking Ratios

Center Size (GLA in SF)

Percentage of GLA in Restaurant, Entertainment, and/or Cinema

Space

0‐10% 11‐20% >20%

Less than 400,000 4.0 4.0 Shared Parking

400,000 – 599,999 4.0‐4.5 Sliding scale

4.0‐4.5 Sliding scale

Shared Parking

600,000 and over 4.5 4.5* Shared Parking

* For centers with combinations of restaurants, plus entertainment, plus cinema that constitute 11 to 20% of center’s GLA, an adjustment must be made to base ratio. A linear increment of 0.03 spaces per 1,000 SF of each percent above 10% will produce a parking supply adequate to handle this combination of land uses.

A more detailed analysis of survey results reported that centers larger than 600,000 SF, up to 1,500,000

SF of GLA, require an average of 4.6 spaces per 1,000 SF of GLA. The parking occupancy count included

8 centers in excess of 1.5 million square feet. The parking counts at these centers suggest that the

parking ratio may decrease as center exceeds this threshold.

Parking Rates from the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE)

The parking demand database utilized by ITE includes data from 197 shopping Centers. The surveyed

shopping centers include strip, neighborhood, community, regional and super regional centers as

defined the ULI. The vast majority of the shopping centers with parking demand data were located in

suburban areas (173 sites). In ITE, the peak parking demand reductions for sites with transit service

compared to sites without transit service ranged from less than 1 percent to as much as 8 percent. The

ITE parking generation for shopping centers is broken up into two categories: December and non‐

December months. Table 2 summarizes the peak parking rates for shopping centers contained in the ITE

parking generation manual.

Table 2: ITE Parking Ratios

Period Average Peak Parking Ratio 85th Percentile Peak Parking

Ratio

December 4.67 vehicles per 1000 SF of GLA 5.91 vehicles per 1000 SF of GLA

Non‐December Months

2.94 vehicles per 1000 SF of GLA 3.90 vehicles per 1000 SF of GLA


estimate peak parking demand, a factor of 20% was suggested to account for these conditions. The estimated parking rates, when adjusted by 20% to account for busier holiday shopping days, equals 4.48 spaces per 1,000 SF GLA for Roosevelt Filed Mall and 2.23 spaces per 1,000 SF GLA for Green Acres Mall. These results indicate that the Green Acres Mall is currently underutilized and the parking rate for the Roosevelt Filed Mall is consistent with research conducted for regional malls throughout the Country.

Both Regional Shopping Malls were contacted during this review to inquire if they had site specific information regarding parking demands during holiday shopping seasons. Simon Properties, owners of the Roosevelt Field mall, supplied aerial photographs taken in the afternoon of November 27, 2010 (the Saturday after Thanksgiving, which is considered a high peak day for holiday shopping). The aerial photographs (included as Attachment 3) were reviewed for the purpose of general observations regarding peak holiday parking demands for the existing mall. The aerials indicate that the majority of the existing surface parking was utilized, with the exception of the surface parking areas located on the southern perimeter of the property (labeled as areas “C, E, and G” on the parking map provided in Attachment 1) which was mainly not utilized. There are approximately 840 existing spaces within these three perimeter parking lots. Vacancies within the parking garages could not be observed through the aerial photographs; however, open spaces are noted on the top deck of the southern parking garage (labeled as GR1) as well as portions of surface parking lot “F”. Minor overflow of parking was noted in the office building parking lot adjacent to the north of the mall. Based on the review of the aerial photographs, it is estimated that approximately 900 stalls were unoccupied during this peak holiday period (or a parking demand of approximately 4.66 spaces/1,000 SF of GLA under existing conditions peak holiday). It is noted that parking requirements are not traditionally based on peak holiday/seasonal demands; but provide site specific information that is helpful to consider.

Based on the body of nation‐wide parking surveys and specific parking surveys conducted at the two regional shopping malls within the Town, it is our recommendation that the Town of Hempstead consider a parking requirement of 4.5 parking spaces per 1,000 SF for regional shopping malls.


ATTACHMENT 1

Parking Survey for Roosevelt Field Mall (7/13/13)


ATTACHMENT 2

Parking Survey for Green Acres Mall (7/06/13)


ATTACHMENT 3

Aerial Photograph – Peak Holiday Season

Roosevelt Field Mall (11/27/10)

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