The usual practice for parking lots is to design
them for autos at the lowest possible cost. This leads to a number of designs
and practices which are unfriendly to people who use the parking space.
Also, the design practices customarily pay no attention to damage to the
environment. Some corrections are needed.
If you visit a parking lot with trees, you will
notice that the shady spots beneath even small trees are the ones with
cars parked in them, even if the shady spot is much further from the store,
office or other lot provider. Autos in the Florida sun quickly become an
oven, with temperatures so high that the interior is unpleasant, at a minimum,
and is a positive hazard to infants, the elderly, and anyone with health
problems.
Inspection will also show that most parking lots
are far from full almost all of the time. For the large malls, a 30 percent
of parking space use will happen only at rush hours or events such as sales.
In the Daytona Beach area a full lot is almost certain to be the overflow
from some special event which has inadequate parking. Auto races are the
most common, despite the fact that remote lots with shuttle service is
available. An exception to partly empty lots may be found at apartment
buildings, but this is only during non-work hours.
Further inspection will show that parking lots are
not really clean. Small pieces of paper abound, and in recent years empty
plastic water bottles have been added. Used disposable diapers are not
uncommon. And many people clean out the car, especially the cigarette butts
in ash trays; and they toss candy wrappers, plastic cups, or whatever out
the window as they drive around.
During rains other factors show up. Water collects
in puddles, partly from poor attempts to keep the lot level, partly from
the distance between drains. The drain screens will be partly to completely
covered with debris. And if it has been a long time since the previous
rain, the runoff water is dirty: particular forms are the sheen of oil
on water, and the black dust of tire wear and
smoke from poorly maintained diesel engines, plus water-born debris.
Unfortunately the construction regulations encourage
these practices. Trees are almost never required: when they are, two year
old saplings are allowed instead of requiring preservation of existing
larger trees or planting ones of a size to produce shading within a year
or so Typically, 100 percent impermeable covering of the parking area is
specified. Drainage points are allowed to be widely spaced, and treatment
of runoff is never required. These practices result from loud complaints
of cost from the applicants: It seems that the indirect cost to the customer
is ignored, as is even the cost per unit use over the life of the project.
Obtaining correction will require re-writing of
construction regulations. The following points should be covered:
- A large parking area should be divided into three
zones; the closest to the use entrance may be paved with impervious surface,
the intermediate area with permeable surface, and the distant areas covered
with grass; relative size should be set on the basis of a use analysis,
but inspection suggests that 1/3,1/3,1/3 is not a bad ratio.
- A combined tree plant area and water sink should
be provided for each 6 parking spaces, with parking area water directed
to the sink.
- The driving lanes along the parking areas should
be provided with a conduit drain for each 4 of the combined areas.
- The conduit drains should lead to a sediment and
grease trap before discharge to a storm sewer or to surface waters.
Trees should be local broad-leaf species. Imported
palms from California may look good to visitors seeking "Florida", but
they do nothing for comfort in living. It is probably a good idea to specify
that the initial planting should be 50% fast growing species, and 50% long
life ones, interspersed, with the short life ones replaced as the others
mature, with replacement of all as they near end of life. Water and fertilizer
should be supplied.
The rewritten ordinance must include provision for
bringing existing sites to the new requirements. A period of ten years
would seem to be reasonable for this, with mandatory upgrade after this
time: complete upgrade should be required at the time of major changes,
such as re-paving, or installation of a new building. Other events such
as dressing the blacktop can be used to accomplish part of the upgrade:
the details can be worked out by conferences between the applicant and
cognizant staff.
Site cleaning should be specified, for example,
after major events, at the end of the rainy season, and other times on
inspection.