Article 1 — Residential Districts

The purpose of this article is to establish parking requirements for the residential zones. The provisions of this article shall apply to the R1, R2-MD, R2-HD and R3 zones, and to the residential portions of the planned development and Institutional and Recreational zones. Exception: These parking standards do not apply to high-rise residential developments in the North Costa Mesa Specific Plan; see the specific plan for applicable parking rates.

(Ord. No. 97-11, § 2, 5-5-97; Ord. No. 07-2, § 1k., 2-6-07)

In the residential districts, the following minimum off-street parking spaces shall be provided. The parking spaces shall provide safe and adequate ingress and egress and shall be maintained in connection with the building or structure and use of land.

• (a) R1 zone and small-lot single-family common interest developments (excluding townhouses). Off-street parking in the form of a garage and open parking shall be provided as follows:

• 1 In R1 zones, required open parking may be provided in a garage or on a minimum 19-foot long, individual driveway leading to a garage. In common interest developments, required open parking may be provided on an individual unit's driveway or within the common area. Open parking provided as tandem spaces is subject to approval of a minor conditional use permit.

• 2 For single-family detached residences with five bedrooms or more, tandem parking of up to two standard vehicles is permitted in the garage as it relates to new construction. Tandem garage parking shall exclusively consist of two standard parking spaces.

• (1) Required garage dimensions. Each garage space shall have interior dimensions that are a minimum 10 feet wide by 20 feet long, unobstructed inside measurements. Each residence shall have no more than 700 square feet of garage area unless authorized by a minor conditional use permit.

• (2) Application to an existing residence. The off-street parking requirements stated above shall not be applied to an existing residence at the time the residence is increased in size and/or the number of bedrooms is increased unless the total number of bedrooms is increased to five or more bedrooms including a home office as defined in section 13-06.

• (3) With approval of a minor modification, the planning division may allow the retention of an existing driveway access from a street to satisfy open parking requirements, at such time that garage access is proposed from an abutting alley.

• (b) R2-MD, R2-HD, R3, PDR-LD, PDR-MD, PDR-HD, PDR-NCM and residential components of developments in the PDC and PDI zones. At the time of the construction of any building and/or when a structure is enlarged or increased by adding a bedroom(s), required parking shall be provided per Table 13-85. Exceptions:

  • (1) For lots that are zoned multiple-family residential and contain only one single-family detached residence, the parking requirements in Table 13-85(a) shall be applied.

  • (2) For individual lots in common-interest developments that contain only one single-family detached residence (excluding townhouses), the parking requirements in Table 13-85(a) shall be applied.

• (c) Reduction of required parking prohibited. A property owner or property manager shall make available to tenants and guests the parking required by this subsection. No property owner or property manager shall lease, rent, sell, or otherwise make unavailable to residents and guests required parking. Furthermore, the rental of a dwelling unit shall be deemed to include the exclusive use of at least one covered parking space and equal access to the required open spaces reserved for residents.

• (d) Parking for accessory dwelling units and junior accessory dwelling units shall be provided per the requirements of section 13-35 .

• 1 If covered parking for apartments is provided in a parking structure and there is more than one parking space in any parking structure, then there shall be no solid walls constructed to separate individual parking spaces.

• 2 Open tenant parking spaces required by this section shall be distributed throughout the project at convenient locations and shall be screened from view from any public right-of-way. Open tenant parking may be provided as covered parking.

• 3 For projects with individual driveways that are at least 19 feet long and lead to a garage space(s) or a carport space(s), the driveway area may be used for satisfying tenant open parking requirements.

• 4 Open parking can be reduced by 0.25 space per unit for one bedroom and larger units if the covered parking is provided within either a carport or a parking structure. For purposes of this section, a parking structure shall be defined as: a structure designed and constructed to provide covered automobile parking where parking spaces are located in a common area with no walls or other physical separations between spaces. Open parking requirements may be met by excess covered parking.

the covered parking is provided within either a carport or a parking structure. For purposes of this section, a parking structure shall be defined as: a structure designed and constructed to provide covered automobile parking where parking spaces are located in a common area with no walls or other physical separations between spaces. Open parking requirements may be met by excess covered parking.

• 5 Guest parking shall be clearly marked and permanently maintained for individuals visiting within the development. Guest parking spaces shall not be allowed on individual driveways except for single family detached, townhomes, or duplexes, where the driveway is leading to a two-car garage. Guest parking may be reduced to one-quarter (0.25) space per unit for each unit above 50 in a large residential development.

• 6 Fractions equal to or above one-half (0.5) shall be rounded up. For rounding purposes, the tenant parking requirements shall be added together; guest parking shall be rounded up separately.

(Ord. No. 97-11, § 2, 5-5-97; Ord. No. 01-16, §§ 1s.—1u., 6-18-01; Ord. No. 02-4, § 1i, 3-18-02; Ord. No. 03-8, §§ 5—7, 9-2-03; Ord. No. 09-3, § 1c., 5-19-09; Ord. No. 11-10, § 1, 9-20-11; Ord. No. 18-03, § 6, 1-16-18; Ord. No. 21-03, § 5, 3-2-21; Ord. No. 21-20, § 1, 12-7-21)

In the mixed-use overlay zone, residential parking rates are provided in the applicable urban plan. (Ord. No. 06-9, § 1f., 4-18-06)

General development standards for parking areas applicable to the residential zones are contained in Article 3, Development Standards, of this chapter.

(Ord. No. 97-11, § 2, 5-5-97)