The Saluda Board of Commissioners will consider a zoning ordinance amendment next month for new off street parking requirements.

Commissioners met Monday, Oct. 12 and set a public hearing to consider the amendments for Nov. 9 at 6:45 p.m.

The Saluda Planning Board approved recommending amendments, including adding a general provision section, which includes triggers as to when zoning compliance relating to parking has to be met and an exclusion for garages to not count as building square footage for parking calculations; specific calculations for restaurant parking and specific calculations for storage and warehouse parking.

Saluda City Administrator Jonathan Cannon said the amendments generated from requests for review of Section 7 of the city’s zoning ordinance by a variety of individuals and groups.

The proposed amendments do not pertain businesses in the CH district (downtown), where businesses are dependent on parking spaces owned by the city.

Currently Saluda’s zoning ordinance has requirements for off street parking for businesses and residential areas. Every commercial property currently is required to have one parking space for every 200 square feet of building.

“There are very few distinctions for different types of commercial properties,” Cannon said. “The two they (the planning board) really looked at this time were restaurants and storage facilities.”

Cannon said for some types of properties, one parking spot for every 200 square feet doesn’t make sense.

For residential uses, the planning board proposes no changes from the current two spaces for each building. The proposed ordinance will no longer count requiring any additional spaces since a garage in itself is a parking space, according to the proposed amendments.

For non-residential uses, the general one space for each 200 square feet of floor area that is enclosed by walls and a roof remains, except for bed and breakfasts, two spaces for the live-in owner/manager and one space for each rental unit is required; for inns (no change from current ordinance), one space for the manager, one space for each rental unit and one space for each 200 square feet or any fraction thereof, of floor area of for gift shop and restaurant, including the area used for storage, food preparation and food and drink service; for restaurants, interior and exterior seated, one space for each three seats or stools; for storage and warehouses, zero spaces for less than 1,000 square feet and one space for each additional 1,000 square feet and for residential uses, two spaces for each residence unit in a building.

“A Historical Commercial District Parking Exception Overlay District, as defined on the

Official Zoning Map in zoning district C-H, is hereby established in which the off-street parking requirements set out in Section 7.2 herein do not apply,” states the proposed zoning ordinance.