How to Count the Parking Your Business Needs in Melbourne
You count the parking your business needs in Melbourne from the ratio for your use in the city's Land Development Code (Section 9.72).
At Reach Commercial Real Estate, we represent tenants. We help you find locations, compare costs, investigate property questions and negotiate the lease.
1. Count the parking your business needs
Apply the ratio for your use to your seats, stations, employees on the largest working shift or square feet of gross floor area. The code lists the ratios by use in a numbered list, not a table.
A restaurant owner counts seats and employees. A hair salon owner counts stations. A boutique owner counts square feet. A retail bakery owner counts employees and square feet.
We map headcount, parking, power and signage before you tour.
2. Find the ratio for your use
Melbourne sets a separate ratio for restaurants, retail, salons, offices, health clubs, bars and places of assembly (Land Development Code, Section 9.72).
Restaurants
A restaurant needs one space for each three seats or seating places (Section 9.72(a)(48)). It also needs one space per employee on the largest working shift, and two bicycle spaces per 100 seats. A restaurant with no seating needs one space per employee on the largest working shift. A drive-thru or pickup area adds three spaces.
Retail bakeries and retail stores
A retail bakery needs one space for each employee on the largest working shift. It also needs one space per 300 square feet of gross floor area (Section 9.72(a)(8)).
A retail store needs one space for each 300 square feet of gross floor area. Storage area is excluded, up to ten percent of the gross floor area. It also needs one bicycle space per 10,000 square feet of building area (Section 9.72(a)(11)).
The code does not name a boutique or a book shop. Both fall under retail establishments.
Beauty salons and barbershops
Beauty salons and barbershops need two spaces per station (Section 9.72(a)(9)).
Offices, studios and health clubs
Office and professional buildings and studios need one space for each 300 square feet of gross floor area, excluding accessory storage area. They also need one designated bicycle space per 10,000 square feet of building area (Section 9.72(a)(42)).
Health clubs get any combination of measures set by the community development director. The measures include one space per 150 square feet of gross floor area and one space per two employees on the largest working shift (Section 9.72(a)(46)(A)).
Bars and places of assembly
A cocktail lounge or bar needs one space for each two seats. The other measure is one space for each 65 square feet of floor area, excluding accessory storage area. The greater figure applies (Section 9.72(a)(16)).
An auditorium or other place of assembly needs one space for each two seats. The other measure is one space for each 60 square feet of floor area in the total main assembly hall. The greater figure applies (Section 9.72(a)(5)).
3. Work the count with your numbers
These examples use the ratios above:
A restaurant with 24 seats and 3 employees on the busiest shift needs 8 spaces for seating plus 3 for staff. That's 11 spaces before bicycle parking.
A retail store with 3,000 square feet of gross floor area needs 10 spaces before bicycle parking.
A beauty salon with 5 stations needs 10 spaces.
A bar with 60 seats in 2,600 square feet of floor area needs 30 spaces by seats and 40 by floor area. The greater figure, 40 spaces, applies.
4. Check the uses the parking code does not name
The parking code does not name a coffee shop, nail salon, tattoo studio, music venue or fitness studio (Land Development Code, Section 9.72). It has no separate coffee shop or cafe category. Restaurants with no seating is the closest carry-out category.
Where a use is not listed, the parking requirements of a similar use apply (Section 9.73(b)(1)). The city engineer determines the required parking when you submit a development plan showing the proposed use.
You can appeal in writing to the board of adjustment, which makes the final determination. File within 30 days of the city engineer's decision (Section 9.73(c)).
A variance to the parking rules goes to the zoning board of adjustment (Section 9.78).
We help you organize the property information and questions for the office responsible for the address.
5. Check shared and off-site parking
Two uses can share a lot and reduce the total if their operating hours do not overlap (Section 9.73(a)(3)). The reduced total cannot be less than the largest number of spaces required plus one-half of the required spaces for each additional use.
In the CB-OZ, 100 percent of required parking may be off-site. Outside the CB-OZ, no more than 50 percent may be off-site. All required handicapped parking has to be on the principal, on-site lot (Section 9.75).
Off-site spaces count only if they are within 500 feet of the structures they serve. A recorded binding lot agreement is required.
6. Bring the count into the lease discussion
For each candidate, we request the parking arrangements. Our checklist also covers parking at peak hours.
We want to know which approvals apply before you commit. If other approvals are needed, we bring the expected process and timing into the lease discussion.
Extra items to add to your list
Bicycle parking. Restaurants, retail stores and offices add bicycle spaces to the car count. Health clubs add two per 1,000 square feet of gross floor area among their measures.
A per-space fee in the overlay zones. In the CB-OZ and the Eau Gallie art overlay zone, an owner can pay a per-space fee instead of providing required parking (Section 9.72(a)(57)(E)). The city engineer determines the fee, and city council approves it by resolution.
Start your search with Reach
You do not need to find the property before calling us. In most deals the landlord pays our fee.
Call 321-514-0876 with your seating goal, expected staffing, preferred area and target opening date, or with the address of a space you have found.
Related: the space needs analysis.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does a salon in a large shopping center still need two spaces per station?
No, not in a shopping center over 50,000 square feet. A beauty salon or barbershop there needs no parking above the retail requirement. That holds only if it does not occupy over ten percent of the center's gross leasable floor area (Section 9.72).
When does the parking count apply to an existing building?
When a principal structure is first built, and when it is enlarged or increased in capacity. That means adding dwelling units, guest rooms, seats or floor area above ten percent of the existing building size (Section 9.72(a)).
Which entertainment uses have their own ratio?
Amusement centers, micro-breweries, micro-distilleries and freestanding theaters. An amusement center needs one space for each two seats or machines. Micro-breweries and micro-distilleries need one space for each 750 square feet of gross floor area, plus one for each employee on the largest working shift. A freestanding theater needs one space for each three seats (Section 9.72(a)).
Sources
Written by Cassandra Hartford, founder and CEO of Reach Commercial Real Estate. She has worked in Brevard County commercial real estate for 17 years, representing buyers, sellers, landlords, and tenants across Florida's Space Coast.
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