Zoning Approves Downtown Zone Changes

The Zoning Commission approved regulations Tuesday to help revitalize downtown Danbury, and in another move it changed how the city counts parking spots in developments.

The first change was designed to make it easier for develop businesses and apartments downtown with a long-term goal of improving Danbury’s Main Street area. These changes are one step in the process than arose from the Danbury Downtown Revitalization Task Force.

The zoning changes downtown are one step in a longer process.

In the parking change, Danbury Land Use Attorney Neal Marcus, who is representing his family in a development called the Shops at Marcus Dairy, asked the city to change how it counts parking spots. He said Danbury counts handicapped parking spaces and non-handicapped parking spaces  with a method different from every other town.

“No one else in the state does it,” Marcus said, and Planning Director Dennis Elpern agreed. He said Danbury’s system pre-dated his arrival in town 30 years ago, and he didn’t know another town that counted like Danbury counts.

The classic example is a 1,000-square-foot building requiring nine parking spots. Marcus said in Stamford, New Haven, Bridgeport or Brookfield, zoning might require nine parking spots, and one of those nine would be for handicapped parking. The developer would build eight non-handicapped spots and one handicapped spot for a total of nine.

In Danbury, however, for the last 30 years, a developer would have to build nine non-handicapped spots and one handicapped spot for a total of 10.

What Danbury does is get a total number of parking spaces required for a development. Then it applies state Building Code to determine the number of handicapped spots required. Danbury then adds the two figures (parking required by zoning plus parking required for handicapped parking) to reach a third, higher total. That is what developers are required to build. It’s a greater amount of parking, more asphalt, and higher costs.

In other towns or cities, zoning sets the number of required parking spots, and a developer uses the state Building Code to determine how many of those spots will be handicapped parking spots. From the total number of required spots, a certain number of handicapped spots are marked off. The developer doesn’t have to build extra parking spaces.

“You’re still going to have the same number of handicapped spaces. They’ll still be the same sized handicapped spaces and you’ll have the same location of handicapped spaces,” Marcus said. All of that is required and outlined by state Building Code. Handicapped parking spaces have to be near the entrances. They must be larger than non-handicapped spaces and they have to be a certain percentage of the parking spaces provided.